Archaeology Notes
Event ID 706436
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/706436
NS91NE 1 963 168.
(NS 9637 1686) Fort (NR)
(NS 9634 1687 Old Well (NAT)
OS 6" map (1962)
A fort, measuirng 105m by 76m internally, occupies the summit of Bodsberry Hill (401m O D), a conspicuous eminence. It has been defended by a single stone wall (A on plan), accompanied on the more vulnerable NW and SE sides by traces of an outer wall (B).
Except on the N and NW, where it appears as a low, stony bank measuring up to 5.5m in thickness, wall A is reduced to a mere scarp, in which several outer facing-stones are visible. There are four gaps in the wall, all of which probably represent original entrances, but only at that on the NW can facing stones of the entrance passage still be seen. Wall B now survives only on the NW and SE sectors, but may originally have extended round the entire perimeter. On the N it appears as a grass-covered stony bank 3.4m in average thickness with a single surviving inner facing stone and a well-defined internal quarry-ditch; elsewhere it appears as a low scarp. The two gaps in wall B, situated in line with the entrances in the inner defence, presumably occupy the sites of original entrances, although the one on the NW has clearly been widened in recent times.
Though Feachem (R W Feachem 1963) notes slight traces of timber-framed houses in the interior, no trace of them was found by the RCAHMS, the interior being covered with a rank growth of coarse grass and reeds. The circular depression marked on the plan has been shown by excavation (G Irving and A Murray 1864) to be the site of a well or cistern, possibly contemporary with the fort.
RCAHMS 1978, visited 1975
This fort was generally as described when seen in 1959.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 30 July 1959.
