Field Visit
Date 20 September 1943
Event ID 963976
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/963976
Fort, Dun Evan, Cawdor.
The celebrated vitrified fort thus named occupies the highest and westernmost extremity of the wooded ridge dividing the valley of the Allt Dearg from the main valley of the Nairn. The ridge is divided by fissures running N and S in to a series of rocky bosses. It is the last of these, rising to 765’ above OD, that supports the fort. The summit is defended on every side by extremely steep slopes, but these natural defences have been supplemented by three concentric ramparts. The slopes are thickly overgrown with stout broom shrubs and tall bracken as well as some larger trees, so that no complete survey was possible and the outer ramparts are much obscured. The crest of the innermost rampart however is a clear grassy-grown ridge of stones that defines a pointed oval area some 210’ long NE to SW by about 90’ wide from crest to crest, the sides being straight for the greater part of their respective lengths. No vitrified stones were noted and no trace of inner or outer faces are exposed anywhere, but the stones visible included many of the small reddened and splintered fragments frequently found on vitrified ramparts. On the NW the middle rampart runs 50’ horizontally outside the inner and some 30’ [?below] it. This is also formed of stones but has left less imposing remains. The exposed stones are mostly large, irregularly shaped blocks, and would not be normally expected in a vitrified wall. At the NE end this rampart seems to come to a very sharp point, but it has been too much disturbed by large trees growing on it for any reliable plan to be recoverable without excavation. The same remarks apply to the outermost rampart that can in fact only be distinguished clearly on the NW side.
No obvious gaps in the ramparts mark the position of any entrance.
In the jungle of bracken and broom occupying the hollow interior no well nor foundations are distinguishable.
Visited by RCAHMS (VG Childe, A Graham) 20 September 1943.
