Archaeology Notes
Event ID 846182
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/846182
ND34SW 3.00 31253 41377
ND34SW 3.01 312 414 arrowhead
(ND 3125 4135) Garrywhin (NAT) Fort (NR)
OS 1:10,000 map, (1976)
(ND 3128 4147) Standing Stones (NR)
OS 6" map, (1960)
The Garrywhin fort occupies the summit of a broad-backed ridge, bounded on all but the N side by bogs, and is 590ft long by up to 200ft wide. Its single stone wall averages about 8ft in width and contains three entrances lined with large slabs of stone. A fourth (possible) entrance, halfway along the E wall, may have been, instead, the site of two chambers. There are ruins of some outbuildings outside the S entrance. RCAHMS 1911; R W Feachem 1963.
Garrywhin is generally as described above. The slabs at the N entrance are those published as 'Standing Stones', and the wall itself is now a mere tumble. The alleged E entrance has been utilised to form a crude rectangular yard. There is a small circular hollow, possibly a cistern, within the fort. There are definite traces of at least two outbuildings on a narrow terrace to the S of, and almost contiguous with the fort, but they are obscured by tumble from the fort. At the N side of one of the outbuildings there is a dry- stone aperture, roofed with a heavy lintel, and recessed into the hillside. The aperture measures 0.7m across, 0.5m high, and 0.8m deep. Its purpose is unknown.
Resurveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (N K B) 21 April 1967.
At ND 3123 4133 towards the S end of the fort are the remains of a probable hut circle partially exposed by recent heather burning. It survives as a barely perceptible platform about 7.5m in diameter, on the gentle S-facing hillslope bounded by a discontinuous band of rubble stones visible around the N, S and E sides, but obscured by peat on the W arc. No facing stones are visible, and the position of the entrance is uncertain.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (N K B) 16 December 1976.
Garrywhin fort is defended by a single rampart, which follows the outer edge of a steep-sided ridge and encloses an area measuring 180m from NNE to SSW by 56m transversely at its broadest SSW end, narrowing to 35m at the NNE. The rampart measures 2.25m in thickness and still stands up to 1m in external height. Long stretches of outer wall-face survive to six courses, most notably in the SW quarter, where some of the stones appear to have been laid end-on into the body of the rampart. By contrast, the inner face is poorly defined, with only the occasional single facing-stone recorded in situ. On the WNW an internal quarry scar is still visible. Two breaks in the rampart indicate the position of entrances. The first, in the SSW, is still used by the footpath up to the fort from the Cairn of Get (ND34SW 4) and is 3.3m broad and lined by edge-set stones. Far more impressive is the NNE entrance, where the rampart swells to almost 6m in thickness and accommodates three massive orthostats marking the inner and outer extent of the entrance passage; no trace now remains of a fourth orthostat that presumably stood on the SSW, inner, side of the passage. The orthostats are set at right angles to the axis of the passage, and the outer pair both stand 1.65m in height; that on the NNW measures 1.6m by 0.23m at ground-level and that on the NNE 1.06m by 0.3m. The surviving inner stone measures 1.27m by 0.23m and stands 1.6m in height.
The interior of the fort is covered in peat and heather, and in places the peat has shrunk and cracked. A number of features have been recorded here, some of which are natural erosion scars. Towards the NNE end, quarries have been dug and there is an area of shallow standing water. In the NW quarter, two possible cairns (described separately under ND34SW 56) seem to be no more than collections of loose stones and boulders. Within the southern half of the interior, a U-shaped band of stones, measuring 1.5m in thickness, lies on gently sloping ground, but its purpose is unknown.
On the ESE two later structures have been built along the line of the rampart. The southern (YARROWS04 414) is a crudely formed subrectangular pen. The stone for its wall has been robbed from the rampart, creating a 1.9m break in its line, which has been described previously as an entrance. The interior measures at least 4.1m by 1.9m and the wall still stands 0.5m in height in four courses. The second structure lies 17m to the NNE and has been built against the outer face of the rampart. It measures 2m by 1.4m within a low spread rubble wall 1m in thickness and up to 0.4m in height. Another crudely formed enclosure (YARROWS04 75) lies to the SW of the southern entrance to the fort, immediately below the rampart. Circular on plan, the enclosure measures 5.5m in diameter within a spread rubble wall 2.5m in thickness and no more than 0.3m in height.
To its rear, set into the slope on the SW, there is a square cell formed by bedrock on the W, two courses of walling on the E and roofed with a large lintel. The interior of the cell measures 0.83m in breadth by 0.38m in height and at least 0.65m in depth.
(YARROWS04 75-7, 413-4)
Visited by RCAHMS (ARG, ATW) 16 June 2004
