Field Visit
Date 8 June 2005
Event ID 994545
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/994545
This multivallate fort, a guardianship monument in the care of Historic Scotland, occupies a spur on the SE flank of Castlelaw Hill, about 150m NNW of Castlelaw farmsteading (NT26SW 66). Oval on plan, the fort measures about 82m from ENE to WSW by 35m transversely within the innermost rampart, which barely rises more than 0.5m in height internally, but is at least 1.5m in external height around most of its circuit. The outer defences comprise an earthen rampart accompanied externally by a deep ditch and a counterscarp bank, and internally by a broad quarry-ditch. These defences are best-preserved on the N, and elsewhere they have been reduced by the cultivation of rig-and-furrow (NT26SW 119) that almost completely surrounds the fort. On the NW, the rigs override the outer ditch and the counterscarp bank, and one rig appears to have been cultivated the length of the N side between the innermost rampart and the internal quarry ditch of the outer defences. On the S side, rigs measuring about 5m in breadth run uphill onto the lip of the counterscarp bank, but above this the defences have been transformed into a series of cultivation terraces at right-angles to the axis of the rig. The interior has also been extensively cultivated (on three separate alignments), but heavily-worn tracks extend up the slope through well-defined entrances on the WSW and SSE. A third entrance, on the ENE, is heavily disturbed, partly as a result of excavations carried out here by Childe (1933) and the Piggotts (1952).
This entrance was also disturbed by the insertion of a souterrain into the quarry-ditch of the outer rampart. This was also excavated by Childe and is now capped by a concrete roof. The visible fabric of the passage and a side-chamber on the W appears to be largely as excavated by Childe. The passage measures about 21m in length from N to S and gradually widens from 0.9m at the entrance at the N end to about 1.6m at the slightly rounded terminal on the S. The wall also increases in height from 1.3m at the entrance to 1.7m at the terminal and in places it is slightly corbelled. A cupmarked stone is built into the top of the E wall at the terminal. The full dimensions of the stone cannot be determined, but it measures about 0.45m in width by 0.25m in thickness, and its slightly convex upper surface bears five cupmarks (two of them oval) up to 50mm in diameter by about 12mm in depth. The souterrain passage curves to the SSW about half way along its length, at which point a short length of passage leads off to a roughly circular chamber on the W. This chamber measures about 3.6m in diameter and up to 1.95m in height.
The fort and souterrain are enclosed by a fence, but the guardianship area is also defined by nine boundary markers (see NT26SW 2.01-09).
(CDTA 95-103, 269)
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) 8 June 2005
