Black Hill, Crawfordjohn

This earthwork occupies a SE spur about the 1100ft contour, overlooking the bend of the Duneaton Water above Craighead. It consists of stony rings, partly covered with thin turf, and a ditch beyond the outer rampart. The ditch and both ramparts are interrupted to the E. The inner rampart is less upstanding and is not concentric with the outer, approaching it most nearly on the W (opposite entrance). At the entrance both ends of the inner rampart are widened; on N side of the fairway a slab about 3ft long is exposed (?basal course of wall). The inner ring is bisected by a rectilinear bank running N and S. W of it there is a sheep ree still standing, and foundations of earlier buildings.

In the hollow space between inner and outer rampart in the NW quadrant stand 5 stones rising 18” to 30” above the turf, on the arc of a circle roughly concentric with the ramparts.

Visited by RCAHMS 2 September 1942.

The rounded summit of the spur that projects SE from Black Hill is crowned by a small fort which exhibits two structural periods. The immediate approach to the site from the NW is relatively easy over gently rising ground, but in all other directions long steep slopes provide good natural protection.

The first phase of occupation is represented by a single rampart (I), which is composed of earth and stone rubble derived from an external ditch and also from internal quarry-scoops; it encloses an area measuring 58m from N to S by 64m transversely. On the WNW, where it is best preserved, the rampart measures 7.3m in thickness at the base and stands 0.8m in height above the interior and 1.8m above the bottom of the ditch. The ditch, which is nowhere more than 1.0m deep, has been filled up by ploughing on the NE, while on the W, where there are rock outcrops, it appears never to have been finished. A slight counterscarp bank, 1.8m thick and 0.4m high, can be seen in two places as shown on the plan. The two entrances both appear to be original.

Subsequently the rampart was capped by a substantial stone wall, while, probably at the same time, an inner defence, consisting of another wall (II), was constructed within the original fort. Since no facing-stones are visible, the thickness of this inner wall in uncertain, but there is a well-defined entrance situated in line with the NE entrance through rampart I. A large rectangular boulder lying in the centre of the entrance may have formed part of the revetment on one or other side of the passage. The outer wall has been severely robbed, but external facing-stones survive in two places.

A low crescentic scarp, 7m across, situated immediately inside the S arc of wall II, probably marks the site of a timber house. Much of the remainder of the interior has been disturbed by the construction of a circular stone sheepfold.

The slight remains of what may have been a linear earthwork guarding the line of easiest approach may be traced running intermittently from NE to SW across the saddle 200m NNW of the fort. Where best preserved it consists of an earthen bank 2.4m thick and 0.4m high, with an external ditch about 2.0m wide and 0.3m deep.

RCAHMS 1978, visited October 1975

NS92SW 1 9085 2392

(NS 9085 2392) Ancient Enclosure (NAT).

OS 6" map (1957)

The fort is as described and illustrated by the RCAHMS. The interior is much disturbed; a vague amorphous scarp traverses it, and there may be at least one other hut within the fort. The "linear earthwork" to the NNW, noted by the RCAHMS extends for at least 260.0m across the shoulder of the hill. It fades at either end, and in the north a header dyke associated with rig and furrow appears roughly on the same line. The distance of the work from the fort, and the fact that it faces rising ground do not suggest an outer defence to the fort. It is more likely to be the remains of a boundary dyke, though the configuration of the better preserved sections, together with its ridge situation may indicate a crossridge dyke.

Surveyed at 1:10 000.

Visited by OS (NKB) 28 April 1978

Situated on an elevated spur but overlooked by higher ground, the position of this small fort is similar to that of Arbory Hill (no. 79). Like many of the other fort close by, the defences at Blackhill are of more than one period. In the first phase, it was surrounded by a single earth-and-stone rampart accompanied by an outer ditch which may never have been completed on the west, where there is an outcrop of rock. There are two entrances, and around the inner face of the rampart a quarry-scoop is visible. In the second period, an inner stone-walled enclosure was built, with a single entrance on the north-east, and the earlier rampart was strengthened by the addition of a stone capping (similar to that at Fallburn, no. 85). A recent sheepfold has been built in the interior.

About 200m north-west of the fort, there is a linear earthwork similar to that at Arbory Hill (no. 79) and, as there, it is likely that this served to separate a cultivated area around the fort from the pasture beyond. Some 25m outside the linear earthwork there is a small barrow, 6.5m in maximum diameter and only 0.2m high, surrounded by a shallow ditch 2m wide; another burial-site, in this case a cairn lies 25mwest of the barrow measuring 5.8 m in diameter, by 0.8m in height), also surrounded by a ditch. Although such burials are normally ascribed to the bronze age, it is possible that they may be of considerably later date, contemporary with one phase of occupation of the fort.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Clyde Estuary and Central Region’, (1985).

Cord rig noted at NS 909 239.

P Topping 1989

Detailed survey of several sites in the area prior to the M74 motorway.

Immediately to the S of the fort there is an arc of palisade trench which has been cut by the ditch of the outer rampart. The other end of the trench has been obscured by closely spaced plough grooves, which differ from the cord rig on the slopes to the N and NW of the fort. The palisade trench is clearly visible on oblique aerial photographs (RCAHMSAP 1981).

Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 31 March 1996.

This fort, which is situated on the crest of the SE spur of Black Hill, displays evidence of at least three periods of construction, the latest of which is probably the stone-built inner enclosure. Roughly circular on plan, this measures about 38m from NE to SW by 35m transversely (0.1ha) within a wall reduced to a mound of rubble up to 6m in thickness, and there is a well defined entrance aligned on a gap in the earlier circuit on the NE. The latter takes in an area measuring 64m from E to W by 58m transversely (0.29ha) and has a second entrance on the NW; this has no corresponding gap in the inner wall, thus implying that the inner wall is later. In the opinion of the RCAHMS investigators who surveyed the fort in 1975, however, the rampart of the outer circuit, which measures 7.3m in thickness and up to 0.8m in internal height, is capped with the remains of a substantial stone wall; this they associated with the inner enclosure. Whether this is correct must await further work, but there is no doubt that the outer line is accompanied by an internal quarry around most of its circuit, and an external ditch, which presumably provided all the materials for its construction. On the NW and SE, there is also a counterscarp bank, in the latter sector overlying an earlier palisade trench that can be seen looping out from beneath it. A single house platform can be seen within the inner enclosure, which is also overlain by a 19th century sheepfold.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC1669