Ardanstur

NM 822 136. This dun (Fig. 48, plan) is situated 150 m WNW of Ardanstur on an isolated knoll, partly tree-covered, which rises about 12 m above the surrounding ground to a height of 45 m OD. The flanks of the knoll are everywhere steep, and on the N and W present bare rock-faces up to 4.6 m in height. The dun wall encloses the whole of the top of the knoll, an area measuring 36.5 m by 16.8 m; it has been heavily robbed, but the spread of core material suggests that it had a thickness of at least 2 m. No inner facing-stones can be seen, but stretches of the outer face are exposed, especially on the NE and SW. Rock outcrops have been incorporated in the wall in several places, and, where necessary, underlying crevices have been filled with dry walling to provide a firm base. On the NE, where it is best preserved, the outer face is still standing to a height of 1.4 m. The surviving facing-stones are for the most part large blocks, measuring up to 1.1 m by 0.4 m by 0.4 m, and the lowest course is sometimes as much as 1.8 m below the ground-level inside the dun. The entrance was probably situated on the NW, where the rock face is interrupted by a natural shelf which leads obliquely from the SW to the top of the knoll.

In the higher, or N, part of the interior there are the remains of what has been a substantial walled structure, too indefinite to plan; it is, however, clearly of later date than the dun. The S part of the interior contains several quarry-scoops and a small rectangular plot which has at some time been under cultivation.

RCAHMS 1975, visited May 1967.

Surveyed by RCAHMS using a plane-table and alidade at 1mm:1ft. The plan was subsequently redrawn in ink and published at a reduced scale of 1:1000 (RCAHMS 1975 fig. 48).

This small fortification, which is situated on a steep-sided and rocky knoll, has been heavily robbed. Roughly oval on plan, it measures about 36m from N to S by 17m transversely (0.05ha), within a wall extending around the margins of the summit. The wall is spread about 2m thick and has long runs of outer face on the NE and SW, at the former standing 1.4m in height; the basal course, however, is set at least 1.8m below the interior, implying that in its original form the wall must have been at least 3m high externally. Nothing can be seen of the entrance but it was probably in a gap in the wall on the NW. The N end of the interior is overlain by the remains of a circular stone structure that RCAHMS investigators considered too indefinite to render on the plan. There are several small quarry scoops in the S half of the interior, and a small, rectangular, cultivation plot.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 09 August 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2558