Archaeology Notes
Event ID 688658
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/688658
NO43NW 22 432 358.
(NO 4325 3585) Fort and Broch (NR) (remains of)
OS 6" map, (1971)
The denuded remains of a fort on an E-W escarpment into whose W end a broch with outwork has been inserted.
The broch, cleared by the RCAHMS in 1957, now remains only as a foundation 15' thick enclosing an area 35' in diameter. The entrance, 0.9m wide, is in the E. Facing stones are visiblg on both the outside and inside of the wall, those on the outside being larger.
The outwork, consisting of a wall with an external ditch, cuts across the ridge 16m E of the broch. The wall is 2m high above the base of the ditch, whose counter scarp is 0.6m high. A causeway 4.2m wide crosses this defence opposite the broch entrance.
These works end abruptly at a short natural terrace from which the ground slopes gently downwards for c. 18m to the edge of the steep escarpment on the N.
From this point the wall of the earlier fort can be traced running westwards for c. 40m to the fence on the scarp edge, and eastwards for c. 120m when it curves southwards as a short scarp 1.2m high. It leaves the cleared wood here and is then completely lost in a ploughed field but it no doubt ran SW to meet the escarpmgnt on the S. The only other trace of the wall occurs on the edge of the escarpment 20m W of the broch. A hollow-way running NE-SW up the hillside and breaking the wall of the fort at a point 70m NE of the broch may be the original entrance, other breaks in the wall to the E probably being modern.
Three possible hut circles occur on the short terrace immediately N of the broch at NO 4320 3588.
A possible cup marked stone, triangular, 0.8m by 0.4m, is embedded in the ground 3m E of the entrance to the broch. The 14 cups on the surface may be the result of weathering.
K A Steer 1957; Visited by OS (J L D) 21 May 1958.
3-4 lines of ditches appear on RCAHMS air photographs on the S and E sides of the fort.
