Wester Essenside

NT42SW 5 4304 2086.

(No Grid) Fort (NR)

Fort and Settlement, Wester Essenside. On open ground at a height of 1150ft OD, three-quarters of a mile NW of Wester Essenside farmhouse, there is a small oval fort with maximum internal measurements of 255ft from NE to SW. by 170ft. transversely. The defences have comprised three continuous ramparts (A, B and C) with the addition of a short segmental rampart (D), interpolated betwen B and C, on the SW side. All the ramparts are in a heavily denuded condition, being represented either by stony banks not more than 2ft high internally or merely by crest-line There is a well-defined entrance, 20ft wide, at the SW apex of the fort, and traces of what may have been another original entrance at the opposite apex. Within the area enclosed by rampart B the sites of six huts are indicated by shallow ring-ditcnes about 4 ft. in width and from 25ft to 33ft in internal diameter. Since timber-framed huts bounded by similar ring-ditches occur in several Early Iron Age forts in SE. Scotland, where they appear to be contemporary with the defences,a it may well be that some or all of the five huts which are encompassed by the innermost rampart of the present fort are coeval with the defences. On the other hand, the sixth hut is evidently a secondary structure since it lies in the space between ramparts A and B, and probably over a filled ditch. Thus the existing remains would seem to imply two distinct phases in the occupation of the site-the first phase being represented by the multivallate fort and possibly by several huts, while in the second phase the fort was converted into an open settlement and at least one more hut was added. Since the site has not been under cultivation, the dilapidated condition of the defences is only explicable on the assumption that they were deliberately slighted or trampled down during the later phase of occupation.

RCAHMS 1957, visited 1950

NT 4304 2086. The earthwork is as described by RCAHMS. The ramparts are entirely turf-covered, the inner, middle and outer ramparts attaining external heights of 1.4, 1.1, and 1.3m respectively on the NW side, and 1.7, 1.0, and 1.0m. respectively on the SE side.

In addition to the six hut circles described by RCAHMS there are three others situated in the level space between the inner and outer ramparts in the NE side: they are indicated by shallow ring-ditches, from 7.0 to 8.5m in diameter.

Resurveyed at 1/10,560.

Visited by OS (EGC) 21 June 1962

OS (EGC) confirmed.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (JTT) 21 April 1965