Down Law

Fort, Down Law.

This fort lies about half a mile to the east of the construction on Bowden Hill [NO30NW 7], and about 350 yards south of the farm of Downfield. Occupying an elevated plateau on the crest of the highest hill in the parish (793 feet), it commands a view of an extensive stretch of country. The fort, which is heater-shaped on plan, lies with its main axis east and west with the broad end towards the west, the over-all dimensions being approximately 400 by 216 feet. Approach is not easy from any direction, but it is rather remarkable that along the north side, where the gradient is easiest, no artificial strengthening can now be detected. Stockading may have been resorted to as the sole artificial defence on this side, but the possibility of other elements of a protective character having been destroyed by cultivation must not be overlooked. The defences which survive are a combination of rampart and ditch, confined entirely to the lower levels at the south-west corner, but only in parts are they clearly defined. They were evidently so placed to provide protection for an entrance to the main enclosure, but the exact line of approach is uncertain, the entrance itself having been, to some extent, obscured by a secondary excavation which lies across its inner extremity.

The arrangement and character of these defences can best be followed by reference to the plan. Cutting the slopes in front of the entrance a well defined ditch swings round the site in the form of a crescent. It is best preserved at its southern extremity but averages about 3 feet in depth. Midway in its length a natural bastion in front of the entrance has in turn been additionally defended at a still lower level by a similar combination of rampart and ditch, the latter being cut at one place by a narrow traverse. Where ramparts have been thrown up, they appear to have been constructed of earth and stone, and they have a spread of from 12 to 15 feet. A flat area, which adjoins the fort on the south, is separated from the adjacent cultivated lands by a sharply rising rocky bank, which appears to be natural.

RCAHMS 1933, visited 8 June 1925.

This site was included within the RCAHMS Marginal Land Survey (1950-1962), an unpublished rescue project. Site descriptions, organised by county, are available to view online - see the searchable PDF in 'Digital Items'. These vary from short notes, to lengthy and full descriptions. Contemporary plane-table surveys and inked drawings, where available, can be viewed online in most cases - see 'Digital Images'. The original typecripts, notebooks and drawings can also be viewed in the RCAHMS search room.

Information from RCAHMS (GFG) 19 July 2013.

Oblique aerial photographs of Down Law fort, taken by John Dewar in Octobeor 1970.

This fort is situated on the summit of Down Law. Pear-shaped on plan, it measures about 110m from E to W by 65m transversely (0.53ha) at the broader W end within a rampart that originally extended around the rim of the summit area but is barely visible around most of the circuit and heavily degraded by cultivation. Excavation in 1971 located the remains of the rampart on the N and traces of a low outer rampart at the foot of the slope below (Mountain 1971), which presumably extended the outer defences visible at the W end, where a ditch has been cut into the foot of the slope and flanked with a counterscarp bank. This is likely to have encircled the greater part of the fort, but more recent excavations and watching briefs have failed to identify any trace of outer defences adjacent to the telecommunications masts on the N side of the fort (Russell-White 1988; Strachan 1999). Another short length of ditch with a counterscarp bank loops round the foot of what was described in 1925 as a 'natural bastion' (RCAHMS 1933, 162, no.303, fig 302) in front of these defences at the W end, though its purpose is uncertain. The RCAHMS investigators believed it was protecting an entrance at this end, marked by a hollow extending up towards the summit area, but the ditch at the foot of the slope is unbroken, and the hollow may be the result of later activity, along with the large pit dug across its upper end. Other tracks have mounted the slope on the N and at the E tip, at the latter where the RCAHMS plan depicts what is either a small sector of the outer ditch and rampart or a quarry, but without excavation it is impossible to determine whether any of these is an entrance. Nothing is visible within the interior, which has been heavily cultivated, though in 1984 Edwina Proudfoot (1984) noted an internal palisade trench, presumably as a parchmark in the grass, immediately to the rear of the inner rampart.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3133

This chapter assesses the likely effects of the construction and operation of the proposed windfarm upon cultrural heritage interests.

Nineteen sites are recorded in the NMRS/FSMR as being located within the core study area. Of these, Down Law Fort is protected as a SAM and alleged hut-circles north of Devon Wood are a NSR site. There are no Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas, Inventory status or non-inventory historic gardens and designed landscapes, AARIs or ASRIs within the proposed windfarm application site.

Funder: Scottish power

CFAA Archaeology Ltd