Desk Based Assessment

Date 20 April 1970

Event ID 887609

Category Recording

Type Desk Based Assessment

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/887609

(NX 5889 5601) Vitrified Fort (NR)

(Symbol at NX 5891 5603) Sculptured Stones (NR)

OS 6" map (1957)

Excavations carried out in 1960 revealed occupation relating to two periods.

The first, an Iron Age fort; an area 50' by 80' on the summit being enclosed by a 4' wide timber-laced stone wall. An oval stone guard-hut built in a natural hollow outside the entrance on the SE and a massive rock-cut ditch across the neck of the promontory to the NE also belong to this period.

In the 6th - 7th centuries AD, additional ramparts of poorer type with external revetment only were constructed outside the entrance, and possibly timber huts inside. A group of class I Pictish symbols (NX55NE 2.02) are cut on a rock outcrop at the fort entrance, and now protected by an iron grille. No dateable finds were made.

Information from OS (IF) 20 April 1970

J R Allen and J Anderson 1903; C Thomas 1961; A.Ms.Scot. 1967, 28 (M.O.W.)