Description

The monument is the remains of a fort surviving on low-lying ground close to the E shore of Moor Loch. The fort was in use probably sometime between the Late Bronze Age and the medieval period (between about 1200 BC and 1100 AD). The fort is sub-circular in shape and around 70m in diameter. It is visible as a series of banks and ditches enclosing an area of approximately 0.4 hectares. There is no internal rampart, but the incline on the inner face of the ditch is very sharp, standing over 1.5m high in places. A slope runs across the interior forming two areas at separate levels, with a medial mound standing around 1m in height. A break in both the bank and ditch on the SE side indicates a possible entrance, while a break in the NW of the external rampart may indicate a place of access to and from the loch. The fort occupies a promontory extending into the loch at around 50m OD, some 2km NE of Kincardine and the Forth Estuary. Today the monument is situated within woodland, but it retains lines of sight in all directions except to the NE.

The scheduled area is irregular on plan to include the remains described above and an area around them within which evidence relating to the monument's construction, use and abandonment is expected to survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as the substantial upstanding remains of a prehistoric or medieval fort in an unusual lowland location. There is considerable potential for the survival of evidence of structures and buried archaeological deposits, both within the fort and its defences and in the immediate surroundings, including potentially waterlogged remains. The monument has considerable potential to make a significant addition to our understanding of prehistoric or early medieval defensive and domestic settlement and economy in Fife. Its importance is enhanced by its unusual lowland location, its proximity to the loch and to crossing places across the Forth at Kincardine, and its potential relationship with a similar fort 2km to the NE at Castlehill Wood. Our understanding of the distribution and character of prehistoric or medieval forts and settlement would be diminished if this monument was to be lost or damaged.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NS98 NW 9

The fort is shown on the First Edition OS map (1861), where it is labelled 'Fort (Supposed Danish)', and on all subsequent OS maps. RCAHMS records another local tradition that it is 'The Roman Camp' or 'The Trench Knowe'.

RCAHMS 1933, An Inventory of the Monuments and Constructions in the Counties of Fife, Kinross and Clackmannan, p 85, no 160 (record date 1925).

Shaw, R and Edwards, B 2011 'Archaeological topographic survey of three forts in the Scottish Lowlands', unpubl rep for Forestry Commission Scotland.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland