Fell Of Barhullion

Hill Fort, Fell of Barhullion.

The Fell of Barhullion rises with a gradual slope from the NW. to a· height of 450'. Its highest point is the end of a rocky ridge which crosses the broad back of the Fell from the northward, terminating in an outcrop of rock and steeply scarped flanks. Towards the S. end of this ridge there has been erected an oval fort surrounded by a massive wall of dry building. On the E. this wall is overgrown with vegetation, but on the W. the face of it is in places exposed, and the amount of stone and the size of the blocks indicate its massive character. At one point towards the SW. a slight excavation has been made, and two parallel wall faces are exposed about 5' apart, which probably indicate the position of the entrance. The thickness of the wall disclosed near this point is 11'. Parallel with the W. wall, and a short distance within it, there appears to be a second and thinner wall, and there are indications of it crossing the interior towards the S. end. The interior measurements, as far as ascertainable, are-length 140', breadth 66'. The W. wall appears to overlap at the S. end and to contain a chamber in rear of it, but these details are not accurately ascertainable without excavation.

O.S.M., WIGTOWN, xxxi. SW.

Visited 7th July 1911.

FORT, FELL OF BARHULLION (Inventory No.7).

A plan of this fort was made at the date of visit. Oval in shape the fort is defended by two stone walls. The widths of these walls cannot be determined without excavation, but the inner one has been a massive affair, the debris forming a great belt of scree on the W side. There are surface indications of a possible gallery in the thickness of the inner wall on the W side of the S. entrance. A pit, 4 ft. deep, towards the N. end of this gallery, seems, however, to be stone-lined on all sides so that the existence of the gallery needs to be checked by excavation. The outer wall has been thinner, its width probably being not more than 8 ft. An unusual feature of the site is a number of stones set on end, and with pointed tops, which form an outer defence round the work, Although the majority are now only about 1 ft. in height, it is difficult to regard them as anything else than a chevaux de frise. There are some slight indications of what may be a filled-in ditch running across the rocky tip of the site at the S end. Of the two gaps in the defences, that at the S. end almost certainly represents an original entrance, while the one in the E. side may be original or secondary. The fort may possibly be a galleried dun, but excavation is needed to determine this.

374419 xxxi SW

27 June 1955.

This small fort is situated on the summit of Barhullion Fell and measures about 39m from NNE to SSW by 24m transversely within two roughly concentric walls set up to 7m apart. Both walls have been heavily robbed, the inner comprising a low grass-grown mound of rubble some 5m thick pitted with small quarry pits, though on the W, where the natural topography of the summit is much steeper, a broad scree of bare stones spreads down the slope and probably hides the line of the outer wall. This latter is about 2.4m in thickness and has runs of outer facing-stones exposed on the NE and SW. The inner wall seems to have been constructed on a more massive scale and sunk into its core on the SW there is a stone structure with reveted walls measuring 1.4m square internally and up to 1.1m in depth. Later structures are often found utilising the ready supply of stone provided by a fort wall and there is no particular reason to this structure is contemporary with the wall, or indeed of antiquity, although RCAHMS investigators in 1955 thought there might have been a gallery within the thickness of the wall extending back round towards the entrance. In view of the evident disturbance by stone robbers any interpretation of irregularities in the surface of the rubble here is probably misleading. Nevertheless, the invesigators also recorded upwards of 40 stones belonging to a chevaux de frise, mainly on the NE, but with several on the S also, suggesting that these may have formed a belt around the eastern half of the defences. Some of the latter stones are almost certainly bedrock, and opinions vary as to the overall number of stones that survive, but there can be no doubt of the existence of the chevaux de frise extending up to 15m outside the outer rampart on the N; several stones are still upright, the tallest of which is about 0.75m high.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC0218