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Archaeology Notes
Event ID 718779
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/718779
NT53NW 15 5400 3574.
(NT 5400 3574) Fort (NR)
OS 6" map (1967)
This fort stands on the W end of Gattonside ridge, at a height of 780 ft OD. The site possesses no great natural strength, but it commands extensive views over the surrounding country except along the ridge towards the E.
The fort is oval on plan, measuring 245ft from E to W by about 135ft transversely, and has two ramparts which are now ruinous; the outer rampart has been reduced to a terrace on the S side and almost entirely obliterated by cultivation on the N and E. There is no sign of ditches. Except on the N side, the inner rampart consists of a low stony bank which is spread to a maximum breadth of 23ft; a few set stones along its course corroborate a report (D Christison 1895) that it was once a stone wall.
Of the two gaps in the inner rampart, that at the W end is almost certainly an original entrance, but the other, on the E, has been used by stone-robbers and cultivators, and consequently may be either original or intrusive. The interior is featureless.
RCAHMS 1956, visited 1948
This fort is as described above.
Revised at 25".
Visited by OS (WDJ) 27 January 1961
Chalmers must be describing this site when he notes "an ancient British strength" which has long been known as the Closses, on the hill above Gattonside, 3/4 mile W of Chester Knowe. This was a strong camp of an irregular rhomboidal figure, encompassed by a rampart of stones. Its area was nearly 4 1/2 acres. There seem plainly to have been some buildings within it as there are still a great quantity of stones covering the whole surface.
G Chalmers 1810
