Archaeology Notes

Event ID 687966

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/687966

NO34SE 1 3546 4440.

The grass-covered remains of a well-preserved, probably timber-laced fort. The plan is somewhat trapezoid, as dictated by the shape of the hill, the interior measuring axially a maximum of 370' in length by 220' in width, within a massive and lofty mound which stands to a height of 14' from the inside and is spread to 50' in width. The easiest approaches to the fort, from the NW and NE, are covered by the denuded remains of three very much slighter ramparts, and it must be questioned whether all are contemporary or whether the fort occupies an older site. On the face of it, the former alternative may seem the more probable.

No vitrified material has been found, but the size and proportion of the main ruin have little room for doubt that it must contain the remains of a timber-laced wall, which could be 30' thick or more.

The Statistical Account (OSA) notes traces of internal buildings, while Christison mentions hut circles cut into the terraces on the N and SE slopes.

OSA 1792; D Christison 1890; R W Feachem 1963.

This fort is generally as described. Only two of the three ramparts below the main fort are worthy of survey and there are at least three probable hut platforms (only one of which is surveyable) scooped into the rampart immediately below the main rampart on the N side. Within the fort are the foundations of at least five rectangular structures (three of which are open-ended), probably of a late period, and below the W end of the fort are traces of a stone wall along the edge of the rock face.

Resurveyed at 1:2500 scale.

Visited by OS (W D J) 16 January 1970.