Archaeology Notes

Event ID 704131

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/704131

NS77NW 28 7091 7610

A short distance E of Bar Hill Roman fort (NS77NW 8) the Antonine Wall bends northwards to enclose a small rocky eminence, Castle Hill (155m high). The hill presents a long and fairly steep slope to the NE and shorter but steeper slopes, each about 30ft (9.1m) in height, to the NW and SW; on the SE, the original profile has been destroyed by a quarry, now disused. The evidence for fortifications here consists simply of two parallel terraces which presumably once enclosed the whole of the top of the hill but which are now only visible around the NW half of the circuit. The inner terrace follows the natural shoulder of the hill at a distance of from 10ft (3m) to 14ft (3.2m) below the OS triangulation station on the summit proper, while the lower terrace lies at a vertical distance of from 7 to 8ft (2.1-2.4m) below the first. These terraces are clearly not agricultural in origin, but must represent the quarried seatings for ramparts or walls which have subsequently been either eroded away or deliberately and systematically dismantled. There is no evidence to show whether the fort is earlier or later in date than the Antonine Wall, although the state of the remains suggests that the former alternative is perhaps the more likely of the two. One original entrance may have been situated on the E side, at the point where a well-worn track, running obliquely up the NE flank of the hill, breasts the slope; while there may have been another on the SW. The interior shows no trace of structures.

RCAHMS Marginal Lands Survey TS, visited (KS) 16 May 1955.

On the summit of Castle Hill, which is 145m above sea-level, is a small Iron Age hillfort, the multiple defences of which are traversed bythe 'Roman frontier line' in the shape of the Antonine Wall (NS77NW 49.00).

Anne S. Robertson/Lawrence Keppie 2001.