Rink Hill Fort
Friday 18th October 2019
Rink Hill Archaeology Notes | Canmore- Part of Historic Environment Scotland (HES) www.canmore.org.uk
The striking remains of this fort lie for the most part in a walled plantation on the summit of Rink Hill at a height of 640ft .
The earliest work on the site appears to have been an oval fort or settlement measuring some 500ft by 300ft within a single rampart, which is now represented only by a ploughed-out fragment lying W of the plantation wall.
The next structural phase was an almost circular enclosure about 200 ft in diameter, formed by two heavy concentric ramparts, with a median ditch. The ruin of a massive stone wall lies on the inner rampart, but it is impossible to tell whether this is a contemporary feature or whether it represents a third structural phase.
The recorded relics from the site comprise pieces of 'coarse earthenware' (presumably native pottery), a whorl, a Roman bronze 'head-stud' brooch of Colchester type (1st to early 2nd century), picked up on the W side of the fort in 1929. The upper stones of two rotary querns were found amongst the debris of wall A by the RCAHMS. These, together with the brooch, are now in the NMAS.
A portion of a saddle-quern was found among the debris in the SE sector of the ditch in 1952. A Roman penannular brooch has also come from this site.
The ruinous foundations of several rectangular buildings which lie immediately E of the fort are probably of comparatively recent date.
Access to the fort has been improved recently with a new gate on the west wall and a stile on the east wall. Feel free to explore and soak up the atmosphere of this once significant settlement.