Archaeology Notes

Event ID 721655

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/721655

NX06SW 1 0085 6464.

(NX 0085 6464) Tor of Craigoch (NAT)

Fort (NR)

OS 1:10000 map (1978).

For Sir Andrew Agnew Monument (within the fort interior), see NX06SW 62.

A hill-fort occupying the summit of a hill from the centre of which rises the monument (NX06SW 62) to Sir Andrew Agnew of Lochnaw.

The summit is a flat-topped rock rising steeply on the north and east and by an easier gradient on the west and south. On these two sides the position has been defended by a trench and mound each some 20' wide and the latter now only some 2' in height above the bottom of the trench, but slightly higher where the ground falls away on the outside. Beyond the mound there appears to be a level terrace some 15' wide.

On the south side other banks are visible, possibly connected with old enclosures of later date. The interior of the fort measures about 170' in diameter. The defences are much obscured with shrubs and bushes.

RCAHMS 1912; R W Feachem 1956

The hill has been cleared of shrubs and bushes and it can now be seen that on the south and west sides, where there is only a slight slope, there were four earth and stone ramparts, three of which are now scarps. The remaining sides, apart from the NW where steep natural slopes and a rock face afford protection, were defended by three ramparts, now scarps.

A break in the NE, where a modern track cuts through the ramparts, is almost certainly the original entrance. The banks to the south and east are later field banks.

The name Tor of Craigoch is not in local use.

Resurveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (RD) 19 February 1968

This fort is situated on a small steep-sided hill known as the Tor of Craigoch, about 1km NW of Leswalt. The interior measures about 50m from NE to SW by 38m transversely, but the defences are almost totally obscured by dense thickets of gorse, brambles and rhodedendrons. Traces of two ramparts reduced to stony scarps about 0.6m in maximum height are visible on the S and NE and earlier reports (RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands; OS Field Report) record two additional ramparts on the SW. The inner of the two outer ramparts extends round the E, but the portion of it visible on the NE appears to be a natural terrace. The position of the entrance is uncertain, although a gap in the defences has been noted on the NE (OS Field Report). A monument to Sir Andrew Agnew stands at the centre of the interior.

The cup-marks noted on some of the rock surfaces in the interior (Mann 1923) are natural features.

RCAHMS 1912; RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands; RCAHMS 1985, visited (SH) October 1984.