Archaeology Notes

Event ID 668127

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/668127

NJ56NW 14 5483 6717.

(Area NJ 5480 6717) There are earth-works consisting of two parallel mounds of earth with trenches on both sides, passing completely across the headland at Crathie Point.

Anon 1896.

Across the headland at Crathie Point at NJ 5483 6719 are the remains of an earthen rampart with a ditch on either side. The bank is c.6.0m wide by c.1.5m high and the ditches are c3.0m wide. A causeway c.5.0m wide leads through the rampart and ditches near the east end of the rampart. Some 90m SW of the rampart at the edge of a cultivated field is a similar rampart c.45m in length. There is a gap c.7m wide between the west end of the rampart and the steep natural slope. It is probable that on the south side of the rampart there was a ditch which has now silted up due to ploughing; and that use was made of a natural gully running eastward from near the east end of the rampart to the natural slopes of the headland.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 19 September 1960.

Promontory Fort.

RCAHMS 1963.

Fort as described by Johnston (1960). There are slight indications of a further ditch, 0.2m deep, discernible immediately to the SW of, and parallel to the inner rampart.

Revised at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (NKB) 25 July 1967.

Air photographs: AAS/94/06/G15/12-14.

NMRS, MS/712/21.

NJ 5483 6717 We visited the site with a view to carrying out a topographic survey of the current condition of the promontory fort. The main features still visible consist of an outer bank 7.5m wide and 0.3m high crossing the promontory, extending to some 50m with a less well defined bank extending for another 10m. Some 50m behind the outer bank an inner bank crosses the promontory with a ditch to the front and rear. The inner bank was 7.5m wide and 1.5m above ground surface to the N and 0.5m above ground to the S. The southern ditch was about 0.75m in depth and the northern ditch was 0.2m in depth. Between the two banks there is a pond that appears to be artificial. The total width of the promontory was c 120m. In the area not protected by the outer bank a natural gully appears to have been enhanced to help defend the site. No other remains were noted. The promontory runs broadly N-S. Recent agricultural operations have removed the western end of the outer bank and the exposed cross section shows that it is made of soil and stones.

Plans lodged with RCAHMS, Aberdeenshire Archaeology Service and NMS.

David Irving, David Anderson, Ken Cooper and Alex Bruggimann, 2006.