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Temple Wood

Promontory Fort (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Temple Wood

Classification Promontory Fort (Period Unassigned)

Canmore ID 65808

Site Number NX98NW 5

NGR NX 9184 8522

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/65808

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Dumfries And Galloway
  • Parish Dunscore
  • Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
  • Former District Nithsdale
  • Former County Dumfries-shire

Archaeology Notes

NX98NW 5 9184 8522.

(NX 9184 8522) Earthwork (NR)

OS 6" map (1957)

An irregularly oval fort (R W Feachem 1963) lying NW-SE and measuring 200' x 142' internally. The north and east is naturally defended by the steep bank of the river but elsewhere the defences consist of double rampart and ditch.

RCAHMS 1920, visited 1913

The ramparts are very slight. The inner ditch is c 45' broad and 5' deep; the outer is slighter. The entrance has been in the east at the point where the artificial defence ends and the bank steepens towards the river.

A 19th c stone circle (NX98NW 11) stands in the interior.

Information from OS Recorder (ES) 30 April 1975

This promontory fort is generally as described. There are the slight remains of an outer rampart on the W but all traces have disappeared on the S. The entrance is not visible due to dense vegetation in the SE of the fort.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (BS) 10 June 1975

Activities

Note (20 December 2013 - 15 November 2016)

This fortification exploits an angle in the escarpment overlooking the Nith, with steep slopes dropping down to the haughland of the River Nith on the NE and to the river itself on the NW. Elsewhere twin ramparts with a massive medial ditch over 10m broad and 1.5m deep have been drawn in a facetted arc to enclose a sub-oval area measuring 60m from NW to SE by 42m transversely (0.2ha). According to Alexander Curle, who also noted traces of an outer ditch, the entrance is on the E (RCAHMS 1920, 57, no.142). Apart from a circle of stones erected in 1827, the interior is featureless.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 15 November 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC0335

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