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Carminnows

Fort (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Carminnows

Classification Fort (Period Unassigned)

Alternative Name(s) Deugh Bridge; Carminnow; Water Of Deugh

Canmore ID 64379

Site Number NX69SW 8

NGR NX 6064 9072

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/64379

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Dumfries And Galloway
  • Parish Carsphairn
  • Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
  • Former District Stewartry
  • Former County Kirkcudbrightshire

Archaeology Notes

NX69SW 8 6064 9072

(NX 6068 9070) Earthwork (NAT)

OS 6" map (1909)

The greater part of this earthwork has been destroyed by raising the level of the Water of Deugh to form a reservoir (RCAHMS MSS., visited 1951). When seen by the RCAHMS (1914, visited 1911) and Coles, it was described as occupying a very strong site, within a wood, except for a short distance in the N. It was lozenge-shaped on plan measuring 180 x 150ft internally. The SW and SE sides were defended by perpendicular cliffs and the other two sides were defended by triple ramparts and ditches. The entrance was in the NE, 77ft from the E angle.

Sections were cut through the inner rampart by Childe. No indications of habitation were found in the small areas excavated, some fragments of bone, two flint chips and a minute fragment of what may have been a pot were found. (The site and description of this feature is comparable with Borness Batteries: NX64SW 2- promontory fort).

F R Coles 1892; V G Childe 1936

The scant remains of this probable promontory fort comprise the denuded remnants of triple ramparts, curving a distance of 55.0m across a low promontory on Loch Kendoon. The remains probably relate to the central NW arc of the ramparts shown on Coles plan. Where best preserved on the E edge of the promontory, a truncated double rampart has a maximum height of 2.1m above the medial ditch. In section, both ramparts are constructed of a large stone core with earth/rubble capping. To the W, the work fades and is spread to a maximum height of 1.0m; at no one point does the line of all three ramparts survive.

The work is threatened by the constructional development of a fish farm on this site.

Surveyed at 1:10 000.

Visited by OS (JRL) 29 August 1978.

(Name cited as Carminnow). Descheduled: formerly scheduled as serial no. 1057.

Information from Historic Scotland, certificate of exclusion from scheduling dated 14 December 1994.

Activities

Excavation (1935)

Excavated by Childe in 1935.

V G Childe 1936

Field Visit (14 August 1951)

This site was included within the RCAHMS Marginal Land Survey (1950-1962), an unpublished rescue project. Site descriptions, organised by county, are available to view online - see the searchable PDF in 'Digital Items'. These vary from short notes, to lengthy and full descriptions. Contemporary plane-table surveys and inked drawings, where available, can be viewed online in most cases - see 'Digital Images'. The original typecripts, notebooks and drawings can also be viewed in the RCAHMS search room.

Information from RCAHMS (GFG) 19 July 2013.

Note (20 December 2013 - 15 August 2016)

In 1978 only a fragment of the defences of this promontory work was still visible at the edge of the Kendoon Reservoir, comprising some 50m of the NW side. When first noted and sketch-planned by Frederick Coles, it was relatively undisturbed, comprising three ramparts with external ditches, which formed an angular belt some 24m deep blocking access to the promontory from the N. Bounded elsewhere by a steep drop down to the Water of Deugh, the interior measured about 54m from NW to SE by 45m transversely (0.24ha). Coles suggested that there was an entrance on the NE, denoted by a vagueness in the depiction on his plan but contradicted by the way he carries the outermost rampart across the gap; RCAHMS also follow this line, though the site had evidently suffered considerably more damage by this time, and this feature was unrecognisable by the time of Gordon Childe's excavations in 1935. Childe dug at least five trenches, mainly concentrating on the defences, but also attempting to identify structures in the interior. Unfortunately he does not provide an overall plan to support his confusing account. Nevertheless, the innermost rampart, which where best preserved stood to a height of 2m above the adjacent ditch, was shown to have measured up to 2.4m in thickness and its faces still stood 0.9m in height. He seems to have struggled to identify the cuts of the ditches between any of the ramparts, though one of the outer ditches measured 1.8m in breadth by 0.6m in depth. In one section he found that the middle rampart was retained by a kerb of stones set on edge in the subsoil, a curious description, but one perhaps indicating the packing of timbers in a foundation trench. He failed to identify any traces of structures within the interior, but seems to have encountered a hearth in the hollow between two of the ramparts.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 15 August 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC0264

References

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