Angus HER - NO43NW0022 - CRAIGHILL

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Main Details

Primary ReferenceNO43NW0022
NameCRAIGHILL
NRHE Card No.NO43NW22
NRHE Numlink 33365
HES SM No. 3038
HES LB No. NULL
Site Form Standing Structure
Site Condition Incomplete
Details Remains of a fort and broch discovered by the RCAHMS during the course of a marginal land survey in 1956. On an escarpment running east-west are the denuded remains of a multivallate fort with a broch and outwork inserted at its west end. The site lies between the other two Angus brochs of Hurly Hawkin and the Laws of Monifieth. The broch was cleared by the RCAHMS with the assistance of David Taylor and boys from the Harris Academy in 1957. The remains survive only as a foundation 4.6m thick enclosing an area 10m in diameter. The entrance, 0.9m wide, is in the east. Facing stones are visible on both the outside and inside of the wall, with those on the exterior being larger. The outwork, consisting of a wall with an external ditch, cuts across the ridge 16m east of the broch. The wall is 2m high above the base of the ditch, whose counter scarp is 0.6m high. A 4.2m wide causeway crosses this defence opposite the broch entrance. These works end abruptly at a short natural terrace from which the ground slopes gently downwards for circa 18m to the edge of the steep escarpment on the north. From this point the wall of the earlier fort can be traced running westwards for circa 40m to the fence on the scarp edge, and eastwards for circa 120m when it curves southwards as a short scarp 1.2m high. It leaves the cleared wood here and is then completely lost in a ploughed field but it no doubt ran south-west to meet the escarpment on the south. This appears to have been confirmed by RCAHMS air photographs taken in 1976, 1983 and 1984 which revealed 3-4 lines of ditches on the south and east sides of the fort. The only other trace of the wall occurs on the edge of the escarpment 20m west of the broch. A hollow-way running northeast-southwest up the hillside and breaking the wall of the fort at a point 70m north-east of the broch, which may be the original entrance, other breaks in the wall to the east probably being modern. Three possible hut circles occur on the short terrace immediately north of the broch at NO 4320 3588. A possible cup marked stone, triangular, 0.8m by 0.4m, is embedded in the ground 3m east of the entrance to the broch. It bears 14 cups on the surface though these may be the result of weathering.
Last Update23/08/2022
Updated Bycpalmer
Compiler 
Date of Compilation 

Google Map for NO43NW0022

National Grid Reference: NO 4327 3585



Event Details


Excavations and Surveys

Date MDate YTypeDurationDirector / OrganisationAuspicesFundExtent
51957  JLDOS  
 1957  K SteerRCM  

Artefact and Ecofact

Ecofact

Samples
Palynology
Ecofact Notes

Monument Types

Monument Type 1Monument Type 2Monument Type 3OrderProbability
FORTS MULTI-VALLATEI100
BANKS REMAINS OFB100
DITCHES REMAINS OFC100
HUT-CIRCLES REMAINS OFD95
HOLLOW-WAYS  E100
BROCHS REMAINS OFF100
CAUSEWAYS REMAINS OFG100
STONES CUP-MARKEDH80
FORTS REMAINS OFA100