Archaeology Notes

Event ID 686426

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/686426

NO25SE 23.00 2623 5038

(NO 2623 5038) Fort (NR)

(NO 2614 5037) Well (NR)

OS 6" map (1926)

NO25SE 23.01 NO 262 503 Cup-Markings

See also NO25SE 26.

A timber-laced fort measuring internally c.200 ft. by 120 ft. Several subsidiary ramparts lie outside this, suggesting that the main wall may be secondary. A well-like hollow lies outside the W arc of the main wall but within the protection of an outer rampart.

A stone-walled "out-fort" which lay nearby is now destroyed. (See NO25SE 26).

D Christison 1900; R W Feachem 1963; R W Feachem 1966.

The timber-laced fort, consisting of a massive stone rampart showing clear signs of vitrifaction, and enclosing an area 78.0m E-W by 23.0m N-S, occupies the summit of Barry Hill. A slight ditch runs along the base of the slopes on the S and E sides. Additional defence is provided by an earth and stone rampart which runs from the foot of the slope on the NW along the edge of a low terrace on the S and terminates on steep natural slopes to the NE. A dip in this rampart at the SE corner, coinciding with a causeway across the ditch, clearly indicates the original entrance to the fort.

At a later date, a second rampart has been constructed from the foot of the slope at the SW of the fort, along the south side, where it overlies the earlier rampart, thence northward, within the line of the earlier rampart, to stop short of the natural slopes, where a new entrance has been formed. The original entrance is marked by a waisting in this rampart also.

To the W of the fort is a near circular pond or cistern enclosed within a slight earthen-banked annexe. It is not certain which period of construction this is associated with but the occurrence of ponds within timber-laced forts suggests that it belongs to the first phase. the "out-fort" is not associated with this work (see NO25SE 26).

Resurveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (JP) 13 October 1970