Bard's Castle

NG82NE 1 8982 2790.

(NG 898 279) 'The Bard's Castle' standing on 'the Point of the Tower' is described by Wallace (T Wallace 1897), Childe (V G Childe 1946) and Graham (A Graham 1951) as a vitrified fort, and seems, from their dissimilar descriptions, to consist of a small fortification surmounting a rocky knoll which stands on the chord of a D- shaped enclosure.

The fortification on the knoll is oval shaped, 33' WSW - ENE by 28', and is composed of partly turf-covered stony debris.

The knoll seems to occupy about half the area of the D-shaped enclosure, which measures c. 100' NE-SW by 40'. The chord of the enclosure is formed by the lip of the semi-precipitious slope down to Loch Long, and the arc by faint vestiges of a stone wall which curves round from NE to S and then fades out after apparently turning W towards the slope. A modern stone dyke which flanks the knoll to landward, and ends just beyond it in a small gully, twice crosses the enclosure wall obliquely but elsewhere follows it closely, and the point of the enclosure wall's apparent divergence towards the W is marked by a large boulder incorporated in the dyke. The only specimen of vitrified matter found by Graham (A Graham 1951) was a small piece recovered from the enclosure wall where it lies to the E of the dyke. Its authenticity was verified by R Eckford of the Geological Survey of Scotland.

'The Bard's Stone', a large erratic, 10' in length, resting on the 50' terrace, lies 50 yds E of the fort.

T Wallace 1897 and 1898; A Graham 1951; V G Childe 1946.

(NG 8982 2790) Bard's Castle (NAT) Fort (NR) (remains of)

(NG 8982 2783) Bard's Stone (NAT)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1971)

'Bard's Castle', the scant remains of a dun occupying a small rocky knoll on the brink of a steep NW-facing escarpment. All that survives is a scatter of rubble stones on the slopes of the knoll whose oval summit area of c. 12.0m NE-SW by c. 5.5m NW-SE probably represents the approximate internal area of the dun.

About 7.0m outside it on the SE, partially overlaid by a modern wall, is a slightly curving band of rubble spread to 2.5m running NE-SW for a distance of about 18.0m. This is the wall of the alleged D-shaped enclosure, but it is in fact part of an old hill dyke which turns S at the foot of the large boulder in the modern dyke and continues down the hill towards a sheep fank.

A piece of vitrified material (0.3m x 0.2m x 0.2m) was seen lying on top of the modern field wall; this, and the piece noted by Graham (A Graham 1951), are insufficient evidence to warrant describing this dun as vitrified.

The Bard's Stone is as described. The names "Bard's Castle" and "Bard's Stone" are still known locally.

Surveyed at 1:2500. (Visited by OS (N J B) 21 September 1966)

Visited by OS (A A) 18 June 1974.