Archaeology Notes

Event ID 711662

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/711662

NT24SW 15 2140 4290.

(NT 2140 4290) Earthwork (NR)

OS 6" map (1965)

Two stone-walled enclosures, one of which has been built inside the other are situated on a broad natural terrace near the foot of the W slopes of White Meldon Hill.

The earlier enclosure (I) measures 220' by 180' and has been surrounded by a heavy wall, 12' in thickness, composed of a core of earth and small stones faced with boulders. Round the E half of the enclosure the remains of the wall now appear as a turf-covered bank standing up to 7' in height, with a considerable number of facing-stones still visible; a portion of the outer face on the SSE survives to a height of 2' 6" in three courses. The wall is accompanied by an external ditch which measures up to 6' in depth and 20' in width. Round the W half, however, the later enclosure has virtually destroyed the earlier structure; nothing can be seen of the ditch, and only slight traces of the wall remain, but its course is indicated by a slight terrace on the NW, and on the SW by an intermittent low scarp in which four outer facing-stones are visible. There are two entrances, each 10' in width and situated on the NE and S respectively, both of which appear to be original.

The later enclosure (II) measures 165' by 120' within a wall consisting of a rubble core faced with heavy angular blocks. It has been severely robbed, but portions of the lowest course of either face still visible in the collapsed debris indicate a thickness of 10'. There is a single entrance on the SW measuring 8' in width. The interior is featureless apart from a slightly raised platform at the N end.

Between the two walls on the NE two parallel settings of earthfast boulders, which extend across the intervening space at an interval of 50', appear to have been the footings of thin walls. Although they seem to be associated with one or other of the enclosures already described, their function is uncertain.

(Information from A McLaren notebook 1, 30)

RCAHMS 1967, visited 1959

A massive walled settlement as described.

Visited by OS (JLD) 2 May 1962 and (BS) 26 September 1974

Photographed by the RCAHMS in 1980.