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[SC 24576709] Fort [NR] (1)
First stage of the excavation of a Viking Promontory Fort completed byMr Peter Gelling at Scarlett Farm, Close ny Chollagh Point.
Substantial remains of a large house of Viking type were disclosed.
Work will continue during the summer of '54. (2)
A promontory fort with ditch and surrounding bank with a rectangular
building inside which falls into the category of Viking or post Vikingforts. (3)
Of pre Viking date were at least two and perhaps 3 round houses one ofwhich was about 22 ft diam. They had rough paving of limestone slabs. Finds include one bead, some pieces of iron and bronze and part of a
jet ring. The rampart which surrounds the site is much older than theViking house. The ditch outside the rampart was about 20 ft wide and
was cut nearly 10 ft into the rock.
Norwegian experts who came to inspect the defensive structures around
some of the excavated Viking houses failed to recognise them as
Viking. Mr Gelling has proved them to be Celtic - a large rectangularViking house with walls 5 ft thick was at a higher level than 4 Celticcircular huts. The best preserved of these huts was about 20 ft diam
with thick stone walls and nicely paved floor with a drain beneath.
In the middle of the floor was a well built square hearth. Finds
included a pottery crucible used for smelting bronze of a type c400
AD, beads of glass and shell, a small bone comb and bone pins and
needles.
The fort was already in ruins when the Viking house was built. The
rampart is 20 ft thick and up to 8 ft high. (4) (3 - 5)
A small ovoid fort approx 20 x 22m internal width, at a height of 31
ft above sea level. Maximum use has been made of the precipitous rockface in the west and a steep gully in the south west. To complete thedefence a semi circular ditch has been cut from the gully in the southwest across the landward side rejoining the cliff face.
In the north the ditch has been mutilated by modern boundary walls anda track. Evidence of excavation but no entrance or internal
structures are visible. Mainly grass covered. The interior slopes
down from the east to the west. There were no surface finds of
archaeological interest. The internal height of the rampart in the
south is 1.6m. The width from the top of the rampart to the top of
the outer ditch is 12.5m. The height from the top of the rampart to
the bottom of the ditch is 2.2m. The outer depth of the ditch is
1.2m. A promontory fort. (6)
The type of circular stone hut, about 20 ft across internally
looks prehistoric - almost Late Bronze Age - but the few finds includeobjects of the 1st - 8th century A.D. The fort was completely ruined
before the Viking house was put there, but this is not inconsistent
with an A.D.date. Mr Gelling tended to think of it as possibly 5th -
6th century A.D, and this lies about mid-way between the earliest and
latest possible dates. I think we can say definitely after the year 1A.D. (7)
Close ny Chollagh, a small promontory fort, with ditch and rampart
defending its landward side. Excavated in 1953-56. Iron Age circularhouses contemporary with the earliest phases of the rampart yielded
finds of about the first century B.C, or first century A.D. A long
rectangular house of Norse type that the site was re-occupied much
later, probably during early medieval times. (House sites now filled
in ) Only defensive ditch and rampart now visible. (8-10)
"Fort" at [SC] 245671. This is a small semi-circular enclosure
backing on to a low cliff immediately above the sea with a big bank
and wide, deep rock-cut ditch coming round from its north to its
south-eastern side. The whole is grass-covered but recent ploughing
has come right up to the outer edge of the ditch on the east. There
are slight traces of possible buildings inside but on the other hand
this is the site extensively excavated by P Gelling in the 1950's. Itcan legitimately be called "Fort" because, although small in extent,
its enclosing features are defensive in that they are larger than
strictly necessary merely to enclose. The ditch in particular must
have represented a considerable labour. (11)
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