Following the launch of trove.scot in February 2025 we are now planning the retiral of some of our webservices. Canmore will be switched off on 24th June 2025. Information about the closure can be found on the HES website: Retiral of HES web services | Historic Environment Scotland
Moat Of Lochrutton
Fortlet (Roman)
Site Name Moat Of Lochrutton
Classification Fortlet (Roman)
Canmore ID 65020
Site Number NX87SE 1
NGR NX 8976 7393
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/65020
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Lochrutton
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Stewartry
- Former County Kirkcudbrightshire
NX87SE 1 8976 7393.
(NX 8976 7393) Earthwork (NR)
OS 6" map (1957)
The "Moat of Lochrutton", a very extensive earthwork, gives its name to the neighbouring farm. Upon it "hearths" and other remains are constantly found when ploughing.
Trans Dumfriesshire Galloway Natur Hist Antiq Soc 1906
This large and important "mote" has been so reduced by cultivation as to be nearly invisible. The circular summit of the hill measures 204' in diameter, and the terracing on the WNW can be traced for 208', while the opposite side slopes off for 240'.
It is questionable whether these terraces were not originally ditches, as an old local informant (Mr R Service) stated that the soil is 4' deep there before the ordinary hard ground is reached, and no stones have been found about them. The only stony, hard portion Mr Grierson, the tenant of Moat Farm, knew of, was a longish strip running E-W from the outermost terrace on the E towards the summit. He considers this to be a roadway, and also states the crops grow better on the lines of the terraces. He has picked up several circular stone discs, 5"-8" in diameter and 3/4" thick on the mote.
F R Coles 1893
Several spindle whorls, loom weights, and two flint scrapers from this site, found by W. Grierson in 1912 were purchased for Dumfries Museum
(A E Truckell 1967) and flat stones found in connection with old hearths at this site were shown to the members of the Society in 1903 by R. Service (Trans Dumfriesshire Galloway Natur Hist Antiq Soc 1906).
Fort. Virtually no trace remains. The remains are not suggestive of a mote-hill.
RCAHMS 1914, visited 1912
This earthwork has been almost totally ploughed out, and only faint traces of the two terraces surrounding the hill remain. The alleged roadway could not be located. Nothing has been found recently during ploughing of the site.
Revised at 25".
Visited by OS (DWR) 13 November 1973
Aerial Photographic Interpretation (4 June 2004)
NX87SE 1 8976 7393.
This earthwork, which is situated on the summit of a low rise immediately to the NW of Moat farmsteading, has been heavily ploughed-down, particularly to the E of a fence that bisects the site from NNW to SSE. However, when photographed on March 2000 (RCAHMSAP 2000), several features of the perimeter to the W of the fence were picked out by differential grass growth. These include an internal bank, visible as lighter grass, set within a broad ditch marked by darker, lush grass. Two roughly parallel, narrow ditches lie outside the latter, together describing the WSW half of a subsquare enclosure with straight sides and rounded corners. In outline, the plan bears comparison with some of the Roman fortlets that are scattered along the Roman roads that traverse Galloway. In this instance, the presumed course of the road lies about 300m to the S.
Information from RCAHMS (DCC) 4 June 2004
