Evelick

The fort is easily accessible from the plateau to the NW.

'A slight mound at the edge of the steep descents is sufficient protection for the sides that are so well defended by nature; but towards the E. where the ground is weakest, a scarp 7ft high falls on a terrace, and that again upon a second terrace, with a wide trench and two slight ramparts or mounds beyond. To the west there is a much longer scarp 10ft high, a single terrace 9ft wide and a trench and single mound beyond. The change from one system to the other takes place at what seems to have been the chief entrance which passes obliquely through the lines, but there was probably another where the lines end eastward at the steep face.'

D Christison 1900.

Fort, Evelick

A multivallate earthen ramparted fort like Dumglow, Fife. There are five ramparts and ditches on the weakest (N) side but only one on the S and E. Christison's plan (1900, 56) is accurate so far as the W and N sides are concerned but the narrow ramparts shown on the other two sides are merely late turf dykes.

Visited by RCAHMS (KAS) 20 July 1956

Situated at NO 1993 2572 this fort is generally as described by D Christison (1900) except that the weakest ground lies to the North and it is on this side that the series of terraces and ramparts are found, containing on the West side where there is an additional ditch outside the features described by D Christison (1900) here.

From interior to exterior, the maximum heights of the defences are as follows on the North:- First scarp 2.3m, second scarp 1.3m, first rampart (described as a terrace by OS 6"map) 0.6m internal and 2.0m external, second rampart 1.0m internal 1.0m external and the third rampart 1.0m internal and 0.2m external. The slight mound at the top of the natural slopes on the East and South never exceeds 0.2m in height. A gap of 3.0m in this mound in the South seems unlikely to have been an entrance in view of the steep slopes below it. A second slight mound also 0.2m high runs outside the other for a short distance in the SE. The interior of the fort is uneven but does not contain any obvious artificail feature; SE of the main entrance is a large,oval-shaped hollowed area, ill-defined, which may have been an internal feature of the fort. A natural knoll crowns the east side of the fort's interior. Revised at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (R D L) 21 October 1963.

This is one of the forts on the SW extremity of the Sidlaw Hills. It is oval on plan, measuring about 250 ft (76m) by 200 ft (61m) within defences which are stronger towards the easy approach from the N, but are now entirely absent in the S, where the site is bordered by an extremely steep slope to a burn. In the NW and N, there are up to five ramparts and ditches, all pierced by the entrance-causeway.

R W Feachem 1963.

RCAHMS surveyed the fort at Evelick (NO12NE 12) with plane-table and self-reducing alidade on 31 July 1989 at a scale of 1:500. The resultant plan was redrawn in ink as part of a ‘Comparative plans of upstanding forts’ illustration and published at a scale of 1:2500 (RCAHMS 1994b, 53).

This multi-period fort is situated at the SE angle of a prominent ridge, overlooking the N flank of Pitroddie Den. It is protected on the E and S by steep slopes, but on the N and W the approach is over gently undulating ground. Irregular on plan, the fort measures 107m by up to 78m within a rampart which, on the W, measures up to 8m in thickness and 2m in maximum height externally, but elsewhere it has been reduced by later activity to a low bank or a scarp. Defence in depth is provided on the N and W by the addition of four further ramparts, the outer two of which are accompanied by inner ditches. There are three entrances; the N and S gateways are approached by tracks, and the N passage is partially stone-lined. At the W entrance, however, the outer pair of defence lines continue unbroken across the gaps in the ramparts (which have been partially blocked). This indicates that there are at least two phases in the defences, with the two outermost being added to an earlier defensive system.

The positions of several round timber houses can be identified within the interior, where a modern quarry-scoop (on the E) has been approached by a trackway from the N entrance and a recent subrectangular structure occupies the highest point. The most prominent of the round houses is of ring-ditch type, measures about 14m in diameter over all and is situated centrally within the interior; low crescentic scarps indicate the positions of several other round houses. A field bank overlies the inner rampart on the S, and, on the W, a two-compartment enclosure has been built over the middle rampart. Several trackways of unknown date give access to the N and E of the fort.

Visited by RCAHMS (SH/AW) June 1992.

This fort takes in a hillock forming a local summit on the edge of the escarpment forming the shoulder of Pole Hill above Evelick. Pear-shaped on plan, it measures 107m from E to W by up to 78m transversely (0.58ha) at the E end, though the precise course of the inner rampart at this end is uncertain and it may originally have pursued a more direct course across the N spur of the hillock to the lip of the escarpment, where faint traces of a scarp can be detected beneath a later field-bank. On the W and NW, this rampart forms a more substantial bank, measuring up to 8m in thickness by 2m in height externally, and it is accompanied by no fewer than three outer ramparts, the outermost flanked by ditches on either side and accompanied by a counterscarp bank. This is the easiest line of approach and this belt of defences is in excess of 30m in depth, though the pair of ditches and their medial rampart appear to be an addition, blocking an earlier entrance through the inner defences; the inner gap is also partially blocked. Two other entrances can be seen, one via a trackway that obliquely mounts the escarpment on the S to expose the lefthand side of the visitor, and the other between the stone-lined terminal of the belt of defences and the lip of a gully that breaks through the escarpment on the N, in this case exposing the righthand side of visitors; ditch-like features crossing a spine in the floor of this gully are hollowed trackways. The whole fort has been enclosed within a later field and the interior has been cultivated. Nevertheless, the stances of at least four timber round-houses can be identified, the most prominent being a ring-ditch house some 14m in overall diameter at the centre, and others by low crescentic scarps. Apart from the later field-bank, there is a two compartment rectangular structure overlying the outer defences on the W.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3038