Archaeology Notes
Event ID 713576
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/713576
NT27SW 34 2282 7006.
(NT 2282 7006). A small, D-shaped, stone-walled fort, measuring 27.0 by 18.0 metres overall, occupies the summit of Wester Craiglockhart Hill. A wide, rock-cut ditch,about 20.0 metres SW of the summit gave additional protection. A comparatively large number of sherds of coarse pottery were found in 1970 when a small-scale excavation was carried out to assist in planning the site.
The wall of the fort was sectioned in 1971,about 6.0 metres NNW of the OS triangulation station, and was found to be only 2.5 metres thick. Although only the lowest course of the inner face survived in situ, the outer facing stones stood to a height of 0.7 metres.
The interior had been seriously disturbed by the construction of a ditched and banked emplacement of recent military origin, but it was established that the original ground level was covered by a confused layer of large blocks of stone and rubble representing the dislocated upper portion of the fort wall, thoroughly mingled with domestic refuse including pot-sherds. Immediately above this layer, were patches of paving and a hearth.
This suggested that the first phase of occupation ended in wholesale destruction, but that only a short period of abandonment occurred before the secondary settlement.
It is not certain when these events took place,but the presence of two fragments of Roman glass as well as a tiny flake of Samian ware and a round bead, apparently of Antrim bauxite, would indicate that the site was probably occupied in the late 1st or the 2nd century AD.
Items from among midden material on this site,which are in the NMAS,having been donated in 1916 and 1918, comprise a bronze armlet, a segment of a jet armlet, a bronze finger ring, and a worked flake of chert. (Acc Nos: HR 671-HR 674).
Ritchie dates the bronze armlet to the 2nd century BC but this is clearly a misprint, his context indicating that the 2nd century AD is intended.
Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1917; 1918; G S Maxwell 1970; 1971; J N G Ritchie and A Ritchie 1972.
No recognisable feature of this fort remains. All of the topsoil has been removed immediately west of the summit while further west a modern gun emplacement overlays the site. There is a rock cut ditch 30.0m west of the summit effectively cutting off approach from that side and 10.0m NNW of the summit is a grass-covered scatter of stones that may be the remains of walling. To the N and S of this site are steep rocky cliffs showing no sign of any artificial work.
Visited by OS (B S) 8 December 1974.
