Following the launch of trove.scot in February 2025 we are now planning the retiral of some of our webservices. Canmore will be switched off on 24th June 2025. Information about the closure can be found on the HES website: Retiral of HES web services | Historic Environment Scotland
Archaeology Notes
Date 1973 - 1977
Event ID 698140
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/698140
NR93NE 1 9533 3578.
(NR 9536 3578) Fort (NR) (Cnoc a' Chlochair).
OS 6" map, (1924)
Cnoc a Chlochair, meaning the Hill of Assembly, is applied to an apparently artificial knoll, with distinct traces of a stone wall - the remains of a fort -around its summit.
Source: Name Book 1864.
Fort: The summit of this small hill, 144ft E-W by 103ft N-S is enclosed by a ruinous stone wall 6-7ft wide. No worked stones were noted, only loose stones being seen. An inner wall divides the area enclosed into two sections, that to the E being 47ft in length, and to the W, 77ft. No entrances were noted.
Source: J Balfour 1910.
Two overlapping forts, of differing wall structure, one of them circular, and the other of an irregular shape dictated by the lie of the ground. They are obviously not of the same period.
Source: R McLellan 1970.
NR 9533 3578. The remains of a fort or defended settlement occupy the uneven top of a spur commanding the head of the Machrie plain. The sub-oval enclosed area measures 41.0m E-W by 30.0m over ruinous walling spread to 2.5m and 0.4m high with no facing stones visible. A wall of similar proportions running NNE-SSW appears to divide it into two unequal parts, although this is not clear.
The western enclosure measures 25.0m E-W by 30.0m and is formed by a low stony bank 0.3m high encircling the upper edge of the knoll; a lowering of this bank in the west may suggest an entrance. A modern rectangular stone-built structure, occupying the site of an earlier structure, lies in the NE of the enclosure. The eastern enclosure measures 14.0m E-W by 25.0m with a 2.0m wide simple entrance in the SE.
There is no gap now apparent in the medial wall and no evidence of occupation in the bracken-covered interiors. It is difficult to interpret this site from the present remains. These enclosures, prominently sited and reasonably defensive, could represent a fort or defended settlement although no huts were noted. It is not certain if the upper and lower 'enclosures' are of different constructional phases, or if the latter served as a contemporary annexe or outer defensive wall.
Surveyed at 1:10 000.
Adjacent to the E of the site, and lying in a sheltered hollow, are the wasted footings of three shieling-type bothies similar to the footing beneath the rebuilt structure within the main enclosure (see NR93NE 12).
Visited by OS (T R G) 7 November 1977.
