Knock Fell
Fort (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Knock Fell
Classification Fort (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 62146
Site Number NX25NE 9
NGR NX 2550 5577
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/62146
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Old Luce
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Wigtown
- Former County Wigtownshire
NX25NE 9 2550 5577.
(NX 2550 5577) Camp (NR)
OS 6" map (1957)
A fort (R W Feachem 1963) or stone-walled settlement (R W Feachem 1965) measuring about 570' NE-SW by 300' within a wall originally up to 13' thick, now reduced to its foundations. There is a 12' wide entrance at the SW end, and another, c8' wide towards the ENE. On the NW, 25' below the main enclosure around the edge of a shoulder, are the remains of an 8' thick outer wall. A rock outcrop running NE-SW crosses the enclosure, and the indefinite ruins of a wall are visible at either end of it, thus forming an inner enclosure on the highest part of the summit. It is impossible to say whether this represents a partition or an earlier, smaller, work. On the W, the main wall is almost obliterated.
Wilson records "There are traces of six or seven hut circles along the line of fortification."
RCAHMS 1912, visited 1911; G Wilson 1899
On the summit of Knock Fell is an oval stone walled fort measuring internally 160.0m NE-SW by 85.0m transversely. The walling remains for the most part as a 2.5m spread of stones reduced almost to ground level but can be seen for a short stretch on both the E and W sides where it is spread to a width of about 10.0m. On the NW the wall has been almost destroyed. There is an apparent entrance 5.0m wide in the SW and another gap in the ENE appearing more as a later mutilation than an original entrance. A short length of a ruined outer wall 2.5m wide is visible on the W side about 20.0m distant from the main enclosure. The rock outcrop and walling running across the enclosed area is as described but is of uncertain age and purpose. There is no trace of hut circles either within or near this fort.
Surveyed at 1:10 000.
Visited by OS (BS) 23 June 1976
Field Visit (29 September 1953)
Fort, Knock Fell (Inventory No. 305).
A pear-shaped stone fort, subdividedby a cross-wal into a citadel and annexe and with an outer horn-work on the NW. The walls appear to have been deliberately thrown down. There is no sign of internal structures and the huts marked on the OS map outside the SW entrance are illusory, being merely scattered boulders. There is no immediate need for a plan.
Visited by RCAHMS (KA Steer) 29 September 1953.
Note (9 April 2014 - 22 November 2016)
This fort is situated on Knock Fell, an isolated fort and relatively prominent hill in this part of The Machars. Pear-shaped on plan, it measures about 160m from ENE to WSW by a maximum of 85m transversely (1ha), tapering westwards where the line of the rampart follows a natural shoulder that descends from the highest part of the hill and forms a broad lower terrace. The rampart itself has been heavily robbed, but it still forms a massive scree of rubble up to 10m thick around the ENE end, where there are also traces of an outer rampart. Elsewhere the inner rampart is reduced to a stony scarp or, along the NW, little more than a scatter of stones. On this flank, however, there are again traces of an outer rampart, following a lower line some 20m down the slope, though in this case it is not clear at the point where the two converge whether they were conceived as part of a single scheme or whether the outer was once part of a larger enclosure of about 1.4ha on the hill top. A gap in the outcrops at the WSW end provides a sloping ramp leading into the interior and almost certainly marks the position of an entrance, but there may have been a second at the ENE end, where a hollowed trackway mounts the slope, passing through the outer rampart to reach a gap in the inner. Within the interior a rickle of stones can also bee seen extending across the spine of the hill below the summit on the W, and though it has been postulated as evidence of an earlier summit enclosure (RCAHMS 1914, 112, no.305) its date and purpose remain unknown. The interior is otherwise featureless.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 22 November 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC0689
