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Sidhean Mor Dail A' Chaorainn

Palisaded Enclosure (Later Prehistoric)

Site Name Sidhean Mor Dail A' Chaorainn

Classification Palisaded Enclosure (Later Prehistoric)

Canmore ID 13072

Site Number NH60SE 2

NGR NH 6906 0039

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/13072

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Highland
  • Parish Kingussie And Insh
  • Former Region Highland
  • Former District Badenoch And Strathspey
  • Former County Inverness-shire

Activities

Field Visit (2 October 1969)

At NH 6906 0039, on Sithean Mor Dail a Chaoruinn (The Fairy Knoll of the Glen of the Rowan Trees), a steep-sided glacial knoll with a level oval summit, commanding extensive views over Glens Banchor and Badenoch, there is a palisaded enclosure.

It consists of two palisade trenches, 0.6m in width and 0.1m in depth, spaced from 5 to 9.0m apart, the inner encircling the summit and enclosing an area 38m NE-SW by 25m transversely; the outer lying between 1.0 to 2.5m below the summit and visible as a slight terrace. The entrance in the SW. is indicated by a gap, 3.0m in width, in both inner and outer palisade trenches. Another ill-defined gap in the inner trench in the NE is also probably original.

The enclosed area is featureless except for a small circular turf enclosure, 5.0m in diameter within a bank 1.0m in width and 0.1m in height, surrounded by a faint outer ditch. No entrance is visible. (Information from OS surveyor {A E W} 1:10000 revision 31 May 1967). This enclosure is known locally as 'Jimmy Blair's Garden' after an eccentric who grew vegetables in it at the turn of the century.

Visited by OS (A A) 2 October 1969.

Note (6 January 1971)

A sample of carbonised wood obtained from part of the outer palisade trench exposed in a sheep 'scrape' at the SE. corner of the enclosure was identified as alder by Oxford University Botany Dept.

Information from OS Recorder (AC) 6 January 1971.

Field Visit (20 November 1995)

NH60SE 2 6906 0039

The remains of this twin palisaded enclosure crown the level top of a grass- and heather- covered glacial moraine, situated above the W bank of the Allt a' Chaorainn at the point where it debouches into Glen Banchor. The moraine affords the enclosure with extensive views in all directions and, originally, would have rendered it a prominent feature in the landscape. Roughly oval on plan, the enclosure measures 38m from NW to SE by 24m transversely within a shallow palisade slot, up to 1.5m in width, which is set a short distance to the rear of the break of slope around the summit of the knoll. An oval pit, probably of no great age, has been dug across the slot on the SW. The outer palisade, which lies up to 8.5m from the inner, is visible as a scarp for the most part, but to the N of the entrance (on the SW) it survives as a slot and on the NE it has been destroyed by the erosion of the moraine by the Allt a' Chaorainn. On the SW, outside the entrance, there is a a short length of terracing which may have supported a palisade designed to act as a baffle wall protecting the entrance-passage. The only features visible in the interior are two scarps and a circular ditched and turf embanked enclosure which cuts the line of the inner palisade and appears to be of relatively recent date.

Visited by RCAHMS (JBS) 20 November 1995.

Measured Survey (20 November 1995)

RCAHMS surveyed the palisaded enclosure at Sidhean Mor Dail a’Chaorainn on 20 November 1995 at a scale of 1:250. The resultant plan was redrawn in ink at a scale of 1:500.

Note (26 March 2015 - 31 May 2016)

This small fortification is situated on the top of an almost conical morainic feature that forms a steep-sided hillock high up on the E flank of Creagan Dearg. The E flank is particularly steep, where it has been eroded by the gully of Allt a' Chaoruinn. Rather than being defended by stone walls or earthen banks, the perimeter here comprises two shallow grooves, which appear to be the surface remain of palisade trenches. The inner measures up to 1.5m in breadth and is set a short distance within the lip of the roughly level summit to form an oval enclosure measuring internally about 38m from NE to SW by 24m transversely (0.07ha). The outer trench lies up to 8.5m outside the inner and, except where it has been eroded by the burn on the E, forms a well defined terrace set between 1m and 2.5m below the lip of the summit. Both trenches are pierced by an entrance on the SW, and a crescent-shaped terrace outside its mouth possibly indicates there was yet another line of timberwork here forming an outer hornwork. The only clearly defined feature in the interior is a small circular enclosure overlying the inner palisade trench on the S; it is probably of relatively recent date.

For palisade trenches to remain visible on the surface of the morainic deposits suggests that the timbers they held were very substantial; this is notably so for the outer, which with its position down the slope mimics the structure of stone ramparts and should perhaps be reconstructed as a massive timber rampart with a raised fighting platform at the level of the natural summit of the hillock.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 31 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2921

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