Archaeology Notes

Event ID 709803

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/709803

NT14NW 8 1496 4597.

(NT 14964597) Camp (NR)

OS 6" map (1957)

The remains of a bivallate fort and of an enclosure of later date on Henderland Hill. The site is protected on the NW by a long slope which falls steeply to the floor of a dry valley, but it is easily approached across level ground from the SE, and is immediately overlooked from the SW by rising ground.

The fort measures internally 220ft by 140ft. At the SW end the appearance of the defences is striking, for although the ramparts are wasted, the profiles of the ditches are well-preserved. Thus, whereas the crest of the inner rampart (A) is only 2ft in height internally, it is 12ft in height externally, measured from the bottom of the ditch.

The outer rampart (IB) is 9ft in height internally and 6ft in height externally, while the counterscarp of the outer ditch is 5ft 6in in height. At the opposite end of the fort the remains are in a poor state of preservation. Later cultivation has entirely obliterated the outer ditch for a distance of 22ft and has enlarged and filled the corresponding sector of the inner ditch, while a gap 12ft wide has been broken through the wasted intervening stretch of the outer rampart. On the NW the outer rampart and ditch, if they ever existed here have been completely eroded away. The entrance is on the NE.

The secondary enclosure measures 150ft by 80ft within a wall (11) parts of which overlie the remains of the original inner rampart. The wall is now represented by a stony turf-covered bank which measures up to 2ft 6 in in height and 16ft in thickness at the base. Of the three gaps in the wall, only that on the NE appears to be original.

That portion of the interior of the fort which lies to the SE of the enclosure contains surface indications of four ring-groove houses, while two crescentic scarps which survive in the NW part of the enclosure probably represent two more. The interior of the enclosure is otherwise featureless, except for a very low, stony, bank, 40ft in length, which is probably a comparatively recent addition.

(Information from R W Feachem 1959, 123)

Description correct. There is insufficient evidence to classify the enclosure as a settlement although its interior has been scooped and levelled.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 26 August 1964 and (JP) 7 January 1975

The fort and enclosure are visible on large scale vertical air photographs (OS 71/395/009, flown 1971), and were photographed by the RCAHMS in 1980.

Information from RCAHMS