Field Visit

Date March 2009

Event ID 965179

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/965179

This fort is situated on the summit of Duncarnock, a steep-sided volcanic plug which stands immediately SE of Glanderston Dam reservoir and 370m W of Duncarnock Farm steading.

Roughly rectangular with rounded corners on plan, the fort measures about 145m from E to W by 95m transversely within a stone wall up to 4m in thickness, which is pierced by an entrance in the SE corner. The interior of the fort measures about 1.5ha (3.7 acres) in extent and contains a small craggy knoll in the NE corner separated from the undulating and largely poorly drained remainder of the interior by a broad gully which runs from the wall on the N to the entrance.

On the E and N, the wall of the fort has been reduced to little more than a heather-grown spread of rubble with only the occasional facing-stone visible, although short runs of both inner and outer facing-stones are visible immediately NE of the entrance. On the S and W, the surviving wall is more substantial, reduced to a grass-grown bank up to 7m thick and 1.5m high. On the S, much of the outer edge of this bank has been removed, revealing the external face of the wall, which comprises large boulder footings and drystone upper courses, still standing up to 1.2m high. Small-scale quarrying immediately behind the wall provides the only evidence for contemporary features within the fort.

Evidence for later activity on and around the summit of the hill takes the form of cultivation remains, buildings, trackways and quarries. Several small patches of lazy-beds, in which the very low ridges measure between 2.5m and 3.5m in breadth, occupy almost all of the area of the rocky knoll in the NE corner of the fort. The only areas that have not been cultivated here are the very steep slopes and where rock outcrop is exposed. Slight traces of broad rig-and-furrow cultivation are visible on the steep SW flank of the hill, immediately below the fort, and in the semi-improved field just to the W. The thick bank that crosses the SW corner of the fort and descends the S flank of the hill before being lost in an improved field may have been a field boundary around this cultivation. Other evidence of comparatively recent activity on the hill is provided by the small plot of improved ground which lies immediately S of the fort and E of the field boundary mentioned above. Measuring about 60m from E to W by up to 20m transversely, the plot has been cleared of stone and its N edge is marked by a well defined plough scar.

The remains of three subrectangular buildings have been recorded in and around the fort. The first (NT 50111 55929) is situated within wet, peaty ground at the centre of fort. It measures about 7.5m in length and probably has an entrance in the middle of its S side. A length of what appears to be a ruinous rubble wall, which springs off the NE corner of the building, may represent the E side of a small enclosure. The second building (NT 50071 55857) overlies the bank that traverses the SW corner of the fort. Measuring about 9m in length, the front of this building, which contains two compartments, each with an entrance on the S, directly overlies the exposed boulders footings of the outer face of the fort wall. The third building (NT 50513 55873) is situated immediately S of the fort, some 30m SW of the entrance. It measures about 4.4m in length and has a possible entrance on the NE. The structure lies on the SE side of a D-shaped enclosure which measures about 15m from NE to SW by 9m transversely, the arc of the D formed by a low, grass- and heather-grown spread of rubble and the chord by the outer edge of the fort wall. Both the NE and SW walls of the enclosure have been cut by the trench that was dug to expose the outer face of the wall of the fort. It is not possible to state whether the rectangular structure is contemporary with the enclosure or whether it overlies it.

Of the trackways in the vicinity of the fort, one ascends the SE flank of the hill and eventually enters the SW corner of the fort by breaking through its wall. Branching off this trackway is a short length of track which approaches the entrance to the fort from the SW. The upper side of this track has been cut into the natural slope and its lower side is revetted. Whilst the line of this track may reflect a much earlier path to the entrance, its width and the way it has been engineered suggests that it is probably of much more recent date, possibly associated with the cultivation of the summit area or, more likely, the removal by cart of stone from the fort wall and the numerous small quarries that are still visible throughout the interior.

A disused Ordnance Survey triangulation pillar stands on the summit of the rocky knoll in the NE corner of the fort. On its side is a brass flush bracket bearing the number 'S3618'.

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) March 2009.