Archaeology Notes

Event ID 674860

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/674860

NM72SE 1 7993 2172.

(NM 7993 2172) Fort (NR) (remains of)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1973)

The remains of a fort, unrivalled within the region for its great, natural strength, occupy the NE summit of Beinn Mhor, known locally as 'Losgann Larnarch' - the Toad of Lorn - because of its resemblance to a crouching toad. The NW and NE are rendered impregnable by almost vertical cliffs while precipitous rock faces on the south afford moderately strong natural defence, but access to the summit is available on the SE where the line of low cliffs is interrupted by a gully, 9 metres wide. The fort, roughly rectangular on plan, has measured, internally, about 76 metres in length by a maximum of 21 metres in width and has been defended by a single stone wall drawn across the more vulnerable south and south- east sides. The wall, severely robbed of its stone, is now represented only by a stony scarp in which no facing stones are visible. The original wall thickness was probably about 4 metres, though the core material is now spread in places to a width of 10 metres. The entrance, the exact position of which cannot now be identified, was probably at the head of the now debris-choked gully in the SE. Two crescentic scarps at the NE end, each 5.2 metres across, indicate the sites of round, timber houses and a number of irregularly shaped platforms elsewhere in the fort may represent the remains of others.

As described.

Surveyed at 1:10 000 scale.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 20 November 1969; RCAHMS 1975, visited May 1966.