Corffhouse
Fort (Prehistoric)
Site Name Corffhouse
Classification Fort (Prehistoric)
Alternative Name(s) Lovat Bridge; Corff House
Canmore ID 12745
Site Number NH54SW 3
NGR NH 51382 44787
NGR Description Centred on NH 51382 44787
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/12745
- Council Highland
- Parish Kilmorack
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Inverness
- Former County Inverness-shire
NH54SW 3 5135 4480.
(NH 5135 4480) Fort (NR)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1906)
A double ditch enclosing an area measuring 188' N-S x 240' E-W. The outer ditch is 18' across, the inner, 32'. They are separated by ridges 5' wide and 6' high from the bottom of the ditch.
There is now no trace of any building. It is simply an earthen mound surrounded by two trenches. The drive to Beaufort through the wood has cut through the trenches on the N side. The height of the fort on the S side is about 25'.
T Wallace 1886 and 1921
The situation and structure of this fort are not incompatible with its identification as an early medieval monument (c/f NS75SW 10), but this does not rule out the possibility that it might be of Early Christian or prehistoric date.
Information from RCAHMS to OS; visited 1957
All that survives of this probably Iron Age fort is the N arc comprising c. 30.0m of the inner ditch, c. 6.0m wide and 1.2m deep, c. 20.0m of the outer ditch, c. 5.5m wide and 0.8m deep, and the medial rampart, c. 5.5m wide and 1.1m high. There is no trace of a rampart on the outer lip of the outer ditch as illustrated by Wallace, but there is an inner rampart c. 4.0m wide and 0.4m high, to the inner ditch. There is no trace of the defences continuing around the E slopes as illustrated by Wallace, though it is possible that later tracks have destroyed them. It seems likely, judging from the 1969 6" depiction and the present state of the site, that the fort has consisted of two semicircular ditches and ramparts in the N, W, and S, cutting off a near-level area defended by a natural escarpment in the E, but it is now too denuded to be certain.
Visited by OS (A A) 13 January 1971.
Accepted as motte.
P A Yeoman 1988.
Field Visit (20 July 1957)
Fort, Lovat Bridge 513 448
This structure is situated at a height of 50 ft OD on the crest of the scarp, about 25 ft in height, that forms the W side of the valley of the River Beauly at a point 150 yards SW of Lovat Bridge. It has been formed by isolating a minor promontory protruding E from the general line of the scarp by two ditches, which leaves the scarp N of the isolated section to run SW, S and SE for about 400 feet and to stop before returning again to the scarp. The causeway thus left doubtless represents the entrance. The area thus defended measures about 240 ft in length from N to S by about 190 ft transversely. The surface is flat and featureless. The ditches are now about 5 ft in depth; the inner measures about 30 ft from the crest of the defended area to its outer lip and the outer measures about 20 ft. The whole site has been planted with trees which have been felled, and was covered with rank vegetation and scrub at the date of visit. A driveway constructed through the fort has helped to obliterate the N and SW sections of the ditches. The situation and structure of the fort are not incompatible with its identification as an early mediaeval monument (c. f. Cadzow, Lanarkshire [NS75SW 10]), but this does not rule out the possibility that it might be of Early Christian or even of Prehistoric date.
Visited by RCAHMS 20 July 1957
Field Visit (July 1979)
Corff House NH 513 448 NH54SW 3
The wasted remains of this fort occupy a steep-sided promontory 200m SW of Lovat Bridge. The fort, which measures 73m by 58m, is defended on the S by two ditches and a medial rampart, while on the N, E and W the natural defences have been supplemented by a bank. The entrance probably lay on the S.
RCAHMS 1979, visited July 1979
(Wallace 1886, 341; MS. notes in NMRS, RCAMS Survey of Marginal Lands)
Note (6 March 2015 - 15 November 2016)
This fort occupies a shallow promontory formed in the rounded angle of the escarpment above Lovat Bridge, though the topography has been dramatically altered by the quarry that encroached upon its W flank. Roughly oval on plan, the interior measures about 73m from N to S by 58m transversely (0.32ha), and while there are no visible defences along the lip of the escarpment on the NE and SE flanks, elsewhere twin ramparts with external ditches barred access before the quarry destroyed the southern sectors. Nevertheless, on the N a stub of the defences remains visible, the inner and outer ramparts respectively measuring 4m and 5.5m in thickness by 0.4m and 1.1m in height, and their accompanying ditches 6m and 5.5m in breadth by 1.2m and 0.8m in depth. The interior is featureless and no trace of the entrance remains visible.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 15 November 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2885
