Desk Based Assessment
Date 1975
Event ID 718884
Category Recording
Type Desk Based Assessment
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/718884
NT57NW 1 50760 78260
(NT 5076 7826) The Chesters (NAT) Fort (NR)
(Unspecified) OS map.
Although on plan The Chesters would seem to belong among the larger and better preserved hill-forts in the country, it stands on a very low ridge immediately under the lee of a precipitous scarp 50' high from which missiles could easily be directed into the interior.
Apart from this anomaly, the fort represents a type of multivallate work, the innermost defended zone of which is bordered by a whole series of ramparts and ditches, and there is reason to believe that the existing visible remains may represent parts of more than one phase of construction. The innermost enclosure measures 380' by 150' within a ruinous rampart appearing for the most part as a mere scarp. This is surrounded by another rampart, and thereafter by traces of up to six others. The external measurement of the whole structure is 900' by 500'. (See RCAHMS 1924 plan, fig.47).
The interior contains the surface traces of several circular stony foundations which vary in size. Certain of them overlie the ruined defences, an indication that they represent a period of occupation subsequent to the time when the ramparts were in use and probably dating from the 2nd or later centuries AD.
Sources: R W Feachem 1963; RCAHMS 1924, visited 1914.
