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Langlands

Corn Drying Kiln (Post Medieval), Fort (Prehistoric)

Site Name Langlands

Classification Corn Drying Kiln (Post Medieval), Fort (Prehistoric)

Canmore ID 46900

Site Number NS88NW 7

NGR NS 8223 8545

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/46900

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

  • Council Falkirk
  • Parish Dunipace
  • Former Region Central
  • Former District Falkirk
  • Former County Stirlingshire

Activities

Field Visit (22 February 1954)

NS88NW 822 854 (‘Ancient Earthwork’)

Langlands, Fort.

This fort is situated at a height of 300' OD on a rocky knoll locally known as Carr's Hill, a quarter of a mile NW of Langlands farmhouse. The knoll rises to a height of only a few feet above the level of the broad ridge of which it forms the NW termination, but to W, N and NE its flanks fall steeply for a distance of 40' to the right bank of the Tor Burn.

The structure has suffered considerably from quarrying, and stones have been removed from it to build walls and houses nearby. The central feature of the surviving remains surrounds the highest point of the knoll and consists of a dilapidated stony bank (A on plan), covered with heather, which probably represents a ruined wall. It measures about 12' in width, and encloses a roughly circular area measuring about 75' in diameter internally. Externally, the surface of the bank slopes gently down from a ragged crest which stands to a maximum height of 4'6" above the ground outside, but internally the entire circumference is cut and pitted in the same manner as the whole of the area that it encloses. This promiscuous damage is probably in part the result of excavation. The bank appears to be continuous except for a gap about 10' in width in the S arc which probably represents the original entrance.

This central feature is surrounded, at a distance which varies from 15' - 35', by the remains of a rampart (B), oval on plan and measuring internally 145' NW-SE by 120'. Where the SE arc of this rampart crosses the junction of the knoll and the ridge it is accompanied by an external ditch. The rampart is spread to a thickness of 20' and stands to a height of 6' above the level of the bottom of the ditch but only a few inches above the interior. The ditch measures 18' in width and the outer lip rises to a height of 2'6" above the bottom. On the NE, the rampart runs along the crest of the steep flank of the knoll and merges with the natural slope below, but as it continues NW, it turns away from the flank to run across the surface of the knoll, which here extends NW for a further 80' before dropping to the burn. This arc is again accompanied by a shallow external ditch 18' in width. Here the crest of the rampart stands to a height of 10' above the ditch and to 2'6" above the level of the interior. A length of about 30' of the E extremity of the ditch has been obliterated, probably by excavation and the disturbance has run in to breach the N arc of the wall. Thw W arc of the rampart originally lay on the crest of the very steep W flank of the knoll, but a stretch measuring nearly 100' in length has been undermined and destroyed by a quarry. The S arc includes a gap about 25' in width which probably marks the position of the original entrance.

The outer lip of the SE arc of the external ditch rests on a rocky spine which here runs athwart the ridge from NE to SW. At a distance of 20' SE of and parallel to the lip of the ditch the spine is bordered by a scarp which stands to a height of some 2'6" above the level of the ground outside. This might be the vestige of some now unrecognisable continuation of the system of defence, but is more probably merely the result of ploughing the land immediately SW of the spine. The W ends of both the ditch and the spine have been mutilated by quarrying, and also by what may be the foundations of buildings, while a now disused field-boundary crosses them from NE - SW as shown on the plan. What appear to be the ruined foundations of small buildings lie among the quarry-pits and field banks on the SW slope of the knoll, while the ruin of a rectangular building and the grounders of a stone dyke can be seen on the level ground NW and W of the base of the knoll.

CORN-DRYING KILN.

The excavations referred to above form the subject of a note which is attached to the report of the excavation of the broch in Tor Wood (NS88SW 1) (1). This consists of a brief account of work done at Langlands and an announcement of the intention to carry out more work and then to report fully on the whole. Although the disturbed state of the ground inside the fort suggests that the excavations may have been continued, no further report on the work is known. Three drawings, however, were published (2) which throw considerable light on the results of the initial excavation. Of these, Fig. 8 shows a stone-lined pit which measures 6 ft. in diameter at the bottom and 8 ft. at the open top, and is 7 ft. 6 in. deep. The pit is joined at base-level by a stone-lined passage, a length of 9 ft. of which still bore large lintel-stones when unearthed. As illustrated, the passage measures 13 ft. in length, and reaches a height of 2 ft. 6 in. where it joins the pit and 3 ft. 6 in. at the other end. Fig. 7 shows that it measured 3 ft. in width. These dimensions coincide reasonably well with those given in a brief note on the structure which was published 16 years after the excavation (3). This states that ‘on the N. side of the knoll’ there was a drystone structure which measured 12 ft. in depth, 10 ft. in diameter at the top and 6 ft. at the bottom, to which was connected a passage 2 ft. 6 in. in width and 30 ft. in length, over a stretch of 8 ft. of which was the ‘original roof’.

The structure formed by the funnel-shaped pit and the low passage is identical with a type of corn-drying kiln which was in use until recent times in Scotland and elsewhere (4). The kiln is situated some 60 ft. N. of the N. arc of the outer wall of the fort on the NE. slope of the knoll. At the date of visit it was much overgrown with rank vegetation, but enough of the structure was visible to confirm the earlier descriptions.

The excavation of the kiln naturally threw no light on the nature of the fort. And as the latter would be likely to contain few relics or recognisable structures, it may be supposed that the extensive excavation of the interior, which is suggested by the mutilated surface of the ground, led to no further discovery and so seemed not to justify the projected further report.

RCAHMS 1963, visited 22 February 1954

(1) PSAS, vi (1864-6), 265 (2) Ibid, pl. xv, figs. 6, 7, 8 (3) History (1880 ed.), i, 54, (4) PSAS, xc (1956-7), 49

Field Visit (29 January 1974)

NS88NW 7 8223 8545.

(NS 8223 8545) Fort (NR)

OS 6" map (1968)

The remains of a fort, generally as described.

Revised at 25".

Visited by OS (DWR) 29 January 1974

Field Visit (July 1977)

Langlands NS 822 854 NS88NW 7

The wasted defences of this fort comprise two elements which are not necessarily contemporary; the inner element has probably been a wall 3.7m thick enclosing a circular area 23m in diameter; the outer element is a rampart and ditch enclosing an oval area measuring about 44m by 37m.

Also known as Cairn's Hill.

RCAHMS 1978, visited July 1977

(Feachem 1963, 157; RCAHMS 1963, pp. 72-4, No. 73)

Note (14 August 2014 - 16 November 2016)

The defences of this small fortification, which is situated on the summit of a low-lying ridge NE of Langlands farm, comprises two elements: an inner walled enclosure; and an outer rampart with an external ditch. The inner enclosure, which measures about 23m in diameter within a ragged stony bank some 3.5m in thickness by 1.3m in external height and has an entrance on the S, is set roughly in the centre of the area enclosed by the outer rampart, but rather than representing some form of outwork to the inner enclosure, it is more likely that this is a fort in its own right. Oval on plan, the interior of this latter measures 44m from NW to SE by 36m transversely (0.12ha), and its rampart forms a bank up to 6m in thickness by 0.7m in internal height and 1.8m and 3m respectively above the bottom of the external ditch 5.5m in breadth that can be seen cutting across the spine of the ridge on the NW and SE quarters. There is little evidence of any defences on the crest of the escarpment forming the WSW margin of the ridge, but the entrance is probably on the S where the rampart peters out short of the edge. The interior of the inner enclosure has evidently been dug over and is almost certainly the scene of a largely unreported antiquarian excavation in the 1860s (Dundas 1866, 259-65).

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 16 November 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC1502

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