Description

The monument consists of an Iron Age hillfort on the summit of Cruise Back Fell. A ruinous stone-walled enclosure with an internal area of about 16m N-S by 13m is joined on the S side by a second enclosure, or annexe, measuring about 20m N-S by 12m. The N enclosure, which occupies the summit, has walls reduced to 0.9m in maximum height, now spread to up to 6m broad. Access is from the lower enclosure. The wall of the latter is much reduced, except on the S side, where it survives as a spread of rubble up to 1.5m high and 8m broad. The entrance is on the W side of the lower enclosure, and outside this, on a lower terrace, are traces of slight walls, prehaps of a field or outer enclosure. The area to be scheduled is irregular on plan, encompassing the summit and S ridge of the hill, to include the two enclosures of the fort and the area to the W which may have been a further enclosure or associated field. It measures a maximum of 120m NNW-SSE by 80m, bounded on the W and S by field boundaries, which are excluded, all as marked in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as a small but complex hilltop fortification. It has the potential, through excavation and analysis, to provide information about the nature and development of later prehistoric fortifications and about the domestic and agricultural economy of those who constructed and used such forts.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

The monument is recorded by RCAHMS as NX 16 SE 6.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland