caithness-1911/05_040

Transcription

INVENTORY OF MONUMENTS, ETC., IN COUNTY OF CAITHNESS -- xxxvii

Across the landward end of St John's Point, in Canisbay parish,
has been dug a deep ditch, further protected by a wall on the top of
the scarp (No. 40). The area thus cut off measures some 10 acres
in extent, and is said to contain the site of a chapel.
The third fortified position is the remarkable peninsular rock called
"An Dun" (No. 223), in the parish of Latheron. It is a hog-backed
ridge of small extent rising from precipitous flanks, and lying parallel
with the cliffs on the mainland, to which it is linked by a natural
bridge of rock at a level considerably below that of the ground at
either end. Though the peninsula affords hardly any flat ground,
and is for the most part steeply sloped, there are visible the remains
of a wall along its crest facing the bridge.
Other two fortified enclosures are to be distinguished from those
in the foregoing classes by their situations on low-lying ground and
their different characteristics. Near the roadside at Kilmster, to the
N. of Wick, is an oval enclosure surrounded by a single rampart of
earth and stone, with a ditch outside it (No. 529). The enclosure is
regularly under cultivation and the defences are in part obliterated.
The fragments of flint, worked and otherwise, which have been
collected from its surface suggest that this is a defensive site of an
early period. The other construction, situated on the estate of
Barrock, on land which has been mossy but is now drained, bears
the name of the "Ring of Castle Hill" (No. 4). It is a circular
mound, partially artificial, with a low parapet on the top of the
scarp and surrounded by a ditch, formerly wet, with a broad, flat-
topped rampart outside it. The construction bears a strong resem-
blance to many of the moated mounds on which brochs have been
erected, but there is no surface indication of its ever having carried
such a structure. The regularity maintained in the lines of its
defences suggests a possible mediæval origin.
In addition to the foregoing there are two or three small circular
constructions whose dimensions and more defensible aspect seem to
differentiate them from ordinary hut circles. Such is the enclosure
near Langwell (No. 224), with an interior diameter of 32' and a wall
measuring 11' in thickness. A similar construction has been noted
near Auchinduich in Sutherland.* Of a somewhat similar character,
as being more important than an ordinary hut circle, appears to be
the enclosure near Watenan (No. 527).

HUT CIRCLES.

The hut circles of Caithness are comparatively few in number,
and show only in a trifling degree the diversity of plan and feature
which distinguishes those in the neighbouring county of Sutherland -
the simple pear-shaped or oval form, with a bank, or wall, of even
thickness, being most generally met with. In distribution they are
confined chiefly to the hilly regions on the S. and W., the greatest
numbers being found in the Parish of Latheron, where the physical
aspect of the country differs but little from that of the adjacent part
of Sutherland. Elsewhere, among the Yarrow Hills and near Ulbster
in Wick parish, a few are to be found (No. 530 et seq.); a small group
is situated on Flex Hill in Watten Parish (No. 476), and by the

*Inventory of the Monuments of Sutherland (No. 55).