Archaeology Notes

Event ID 704524

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/704524

NS65NE 18 6569 5821.

(NS 6569 5821) Fort (NR)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1977)

There are faint traces of the foundations of ancient buildings on the summit of Dechmont Hill. These ruins were considerable about fifty years ago, but since that time the stones and rubbish have been removed to make dykes and repair roads. A former proprietor, when digging on the summit of the hill, discovered the foundation of a circular building about 24ft in diameter. The stones had been carefully joined together, without mortar. They were freestones, which must have been brought from a distance as the stones on this hill are all whin.

New Statistical Account (NSA) (written by J Robertson - 1840) 1845.

The slight remains of a mutilvallate fort occupy the summit of Dechmont Hill (183m OD). The fort is horse-shoe shaped on plan with its ends resting on the cliff edge on the N, but easily approached from all other directions. It measures internally some 80.0m NE-SW by 65.0m transversely. The ramparts have been greatly reduced by cultivation and appear for the most part simply as crest-lines. The two outer ramparts, spaced 20.0m apart, have been extensively mutilated and are no longer traceable to the NE. A third inner rampart encircles the top of the hill enclosing an area some 40.0m in diameter; it may or may not be contemporary with the outer defence works. An entrance is visible in the W side, where a hollow track leads up to a gap in the outer ramparts. (See also NS65NE 21).

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (A C) 13 May 1959.