Archaeology Notes

Event ID 668078

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/668078

NJ56SE 4 5710 6383

See also NJ56SE 6.

(NJ 5710 6383) Camp (NR)

OS 6" map, Banffshire, 2nd ed., (1904)

Three lines of defence enclose a flat space on top of the Hill of Durn. The lowest line is a trench with outer upcast mound. Above this is a stone wall which is accompanied by a trench only for about 160 yards on the SW, where it is mainly filled up, and appears to have been formed outside the wall after it was built. An entrance is in this section, and another appears to have been on the NW side where there is a similar trench though only about 30 yards long. The third line of defence is clearly traceable all the way round although of no great depth.

Anon 1884.

The fort on Durn Hill appears to have been uncompleted. The inner line is a shallow marker trench c.0.5m wide by 0.1m deep which can be traced throughout its entire circuit. The outer line is a similar trench which can also be traced without much difficulty throughout its circuit.

In the SW angle of this trench is an entrance c.4.0m wide. The medial line of defence, obviously unfinished, consists of a ditch with upcast bank on its outer lip, covering the SW angle for a distance of c.140m. The ditch is c.3.0m wide by 0.8m deep, and the bank is c.4.0m broad by 0.6m high. In the centre of this stretch is a causeway c.4.5m wide. The remainder of this line can be traced round the summit of the hill as a slight scarp except on the NW segment where only a slight discolouration of the heather marks its course. A break in the SW angle of the inner trench can be faintly discerned, and is probably the entrance. Within the SW angle of the fort, where the medial rampart has been constructed, are the vague footings of two similar circular structures. The more southerly is contiguous with the ditch of the medial rampart and is 8.5m in diameter and 0.1m high; the other is 5.4m in diameter and 0.1m high - possibly hut circles.

Revised at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 20 September 1961.

An unfinished tri-vallate fort as planned by RCAHM and described by Johnston (1961).

(Undated) information in NMRS.

A striking example of an unfinished hill-fort exhibiting two kinds of markers occurs on Durn Hill, Banffshire, a gently rounded hill of white quartzite known as Durn Hill marble clothed with sparse heather and shallow peat. The outermost and the innermost of three lines of markers are marker ditches with slight traces of spoil on their outer lips. The medial line, however, is a marker bank formed from gathered stones. Construction work, in which there is evidence of gangs, has started only on the medial line.

The occurrence here of the two marking techniques probably signifies the former existence of two separate constructional projects. First, the scheme which reached only the stage of marking out with ditches, and second the plan represented by the marker bank which is situated between, but not constantly equidistant from, the marker ditches. The latter project was barely begun before being abandoned. In the course of the short stretches of work on the medial line it can be observed that the larger blocks of quartzite were thrown uphill as material from which a rampart would be built, while the moderate amount of small spoil was cast downhill to form a counterscarp bank.

R W Feachem 1971.

Classified as Site of Regional Significance: air photographic imagery listed.

NMRS, MS/712/35.

Air photograph: AAS/00/10/CT.

NMRS, MS/712/100.