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Archaeology Notes
Event ID 710146
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/710146
NT04SE 20 0908 4122.
(NT 0908 4122) Muirburn Castle (NAT) Camp (NR)
OS 6" map (1957)
The remains of a fort and of three scooped homesteads are situated 1/4 mile W of Muirburn farmhouse, on the rounded summit of an isolated hill. The fort is said to have been in a very good state of preservation until the middle of the 19th century, when it was ploughed over. Since then it has been planted with trees, most of which have now been felled, and the remains are consequently now much wasted.
Two constructional phases can be discerned in the fort. The firt is represented by two ramparts (IA, IB), now almost entirely levelled, which enclose an area measuring axially 260' by 220'. An internal rock-cut terrace (T) up to 40' in width, indicates that the ramparts were built of rubble, and there is no trace of any stone revetment. The entrance is on the ENE. The interior of the fort, which rises to a maximum height of 12' above the terrace, contains at least 7 house- platforms, the largest measuring 28' across.
Subsequently the inner rampart was replaced by a wall (II) which now appears partly as a thin line of rubble and partly as a grass-grown stony bank. It is reasonable to suppose that, in the normal fashion of a heaped rampart, rampart IA would be sst on the outer edge of the terrace, so that its scarp and that of the terrace formed a continuous slope. In contrast, wall II is set back from the outer margin of the terrace round the greater part of its circuit, but the intervening space is so narrow, particularly on the N, that rampart IA must have been totally removed before wall II was erected. This detail is of some interest since it suggests that at the time when the original fort was abandoned, its defences may have been deliberately slighted.
The three scooped homesteads (X, Y, Z) were constructed partly upon and partly outside the ramparts on the E side of the fort. Scooped homestead Y, situated immediately S of the fort entrance, has been almost obliterated by former cultivation, but the other two (X,Z) both of which measure internally about 60' in either direction, are still comparatively well preserved. The interiors of the scooped homesteads are on two levels. The upper level, formed by a section of the quarried seating of the outer rampart (IB), is backed by the scarp of rampart IA and is bordered on either side by a grass- grown stony bank which continues down the slopes to form the court. The entrance in each case faces E. Elongated shallow depressions on the upper levels of X and Z presumably represent the sites of timber houses, but a curved bank in the upper part of Y is intrusive.
In chronological order, the various structures would seem therefore to be as follows: (i) a pre-Roman Iron Age fort defended by ramparts IA and IB; (ii) the three scooped homesteads which may be attributed to the 1st or 2nd century A D; and (iii) a second fort, formed by wall II, which probably dates to the Dark Ages.
RCAHMS 1967, visited 1958
Generally as described by RCAHMS. Name not known locally.
RCAHMS survey (25") revised.
Visited by OS (RD) 6 August 1971
