Field Visit

Date 29 June 1956

Event ID 920370

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/920370

RCAHMS Marginal Land Survey

Fort, Durn Hill.

Durn Hill, which attains a height of 651 ft OD stands immediately NE of Fordyce Hill, to which it is connected by a saddle, and the two form a conspicuous feature as they rise from the coastal plain two miles SW. of the coast at Portsoy. The flanks of Durn Hill slope gently down in all directions, and the summit area is only slightly domed. The nature of the hill, and also perhaps the distance its summit commands in all directions, make it a suitable place for a hill fort, but although it was indeed chosen for such a purpose the structure was not completed.

Three lines of defences were planned. The innermost, enclosing an area 660 ft in length and 350 ft in width of the most level and even part of the hilltop, is entirely in the form of a marker trench some 2 ft in width and up to one foot in depth. Although the general line is regular the trench continually varies in both width and depth. A gap 55 ft in width occurs in the SW. arc, and another of 10 ft in the NE. arc. A very slight upcast mound can be detected at certain places along the outer lip.

The second line is represented not by a marker trench but by a thin line of loose boulders. It lies at a distance varying from 35 ft to 85 ft outside the inner line and there are four gaps in it, one of 70 ft in the S. arc, one of 30 ft in the E. arc, one of 55 ft in the NE. arc and one of 20 ft in the SW. arc. At three places on this line work has begun on the next stage of construction. This is best seen on either side of the gap in the SW. arc where ditches have been started. These, which clearly show the work of separate gangs of excavators, are up to 3 ft in depth and 10 ft in width. The smaller spoil of earth and stones has been cast up along the outer lip to form mounds about one foot in height, while the larger boulders have been arranged along the inner lip on the line of the marking-out boulders. At one place in the S. arc traces of a built outer face can be distinguished, and lesser traces of similar work occur in the NW. arc.

The third line, which lies at distances varying from 35 ft to 135 ft outside the second, consists entirely of a marker trench in which there are several small gaps. It is notable that none occurs in the NE arc, where both the other lines are breached, but there is a gap of 10 ft in the S arc. It is probable that the only en trance to the fort was to be in this sector. The trench varies in width and depth with an average of about 3 feet and one foot respectively. It is thus a little larger than the inner one.

Boulders, stones and outcrops of white "Durn Hill Marble" are conspicuous all over the hill, and in the interior of the fort a great many can be seen protruding through the peat and among the heather. In two places circular arrangements of these White stones were noted which could possibly be described as hut circles, although there was no suggestion of regular faced walling in their random arrangement. One of them, measuring 27 feet in internal diameter, partly corresponds with the line of the median marking-out line of boulders at a point in the W. sector where the digging of the ditch had been begun. As the line of boulders impinged upon the circle it can be concluded that the latter was, if only perhaps by a little, the earlier structure. The other ring, 20 feet in internal diameter, lies inside the S. part of the fort.

571639. iii. SE ("Camp")

29th June 1956