Field Visit

Date November 2013

Event ID 993755

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/993755

NX 8452 5399 The cross walls and perimeter walls (DES 10, 54) on the terrace SW of Mote of Mark were examined in early November 2013, after bracken die-back. A bank or rock ridge runs along the rear of the terrace in a shallow curve 50m long. A cross-contour rock ridge runs out from 12m NW of the end of this curve, for 35m and a further 15m at a lower level. The platforms lie NW of this within the curve. They comprise a platform 15 x 5m cut into the slope, and slightly lower another 10 x 5m. A ridge or bank perpendicular to the curved bank, 12m long, divides these from a third platform 10 x 7m to SE, cut into the slope, with possible 2m wall footing on SW. Below these is a 2–3m terrace, possibly an access track, which passes through a gap in the cross ridge, E of which it appears to turn steeply downhill. The hut lower downhill to E, described in 2009, more accurately at NH 8454 5398, is 20m across, including rock components, and probable stone clearance, and only 6m in diameter internally. With adjacent scarps it appears to restrict access to the terrace. It is not certain whether these features are contemporary with the fort or a much later homestead.

Archive: RCAHMS

Tom Welsh, 2013

(Source: DES)