Bizzyberry Hill

NT03NW 5 0480 3936.

(NT 0480 3936) Fort (NR) (remains of)

OS 25" map, (1977).

The remains of this fort were generally as described by the RCAHMS, when seen in 1972.

Resurveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (RD) 18 July 1972.

NT03NW 048 393.

The fort that stands on the rocky knoll forming the summit of Bizzyberry Hill encloses an area measuring 55m from N to S by 40m transversely, but has been almost destroyed by robbing and by erosion. It appears to have been defended by a single stone wall, traces of which are visible as grass-grown mounds of rubble along only the NE and SW margins of the knoll. On the W, a rock-cut ditch, 3.5m wide and 1.0m deep, extends across the ridge at the foot of the knoll; it is interrupted towards the S end by a causeway 3.0m wide. A second entrance may be indicated by a breach in the wall on the NE.

RCAHMS 1978, visited February 1975.

The fort on the top of Bizzybery Hill comprises two elements, namely an upper enclosure taking in the hillock that forms the very summit of the hill, and a lower enclosure extending along the rocky terrace to the WSW. The upper enclosure is oval on plan, measuring about 55m from NW to SE by 40m transversely (0.17ha) within a single rampart which has been so heavily robbed that no more than a few mounds of rubble can be seen along the NE and SW margins of the summit area. In addition, a ditch 3.5m in breadth by 1m in depth has been cut into the rock at the foot of the SW flank of hillock; a causeway towards its S end may mark the position of an entrance into the upper enclosure on the SSW, and there is possibly a second entrance on the NE. The lower enclosure was first described by David Christison (1890, 333-4) and while not noted by RCAHMS investigators in 1975 (RCAHMS 1978, 92, no.215), subsequent aerial photography under snow reveals the course of its rampart extending along the NW and S lips of the rocky terrace that extends away to a rounded point on the WSW, enclosing a roughly triangular area measuring about 115m from ENE to WSW by 65m transversely. The relationship between the upper and lower enclosures is uncertain, and while the lower is possibly an annexe to the upper, it is perhaps more likely to be the remains of a much larger fort enclosing both the summit hillock and the terrace, an area measuring about 160m from ENE to WSW by 65m transversely (0.77ha). The interiors of both enclosures are featureless and it is unclear whether there are any entrances into the lower, though there is a gap in the rampart in the middle of the NW side.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 17 August 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3225