dressed blocks, from 2 to 4 ft. long, closely set. There are appearances of a narrow entrance on the W. side. Three trenches or earthworks, 150 ft. long and 12 to 15 wide, give additional protection to the most vulnerable side, which is on the S.W. 30. Castle Dow, most unaccountably called "site of a supposed Pictish fort" on the O.M., and with no remains marked at it, is shown by Mr Hutcheson to be an undoubted fort (fig. 28). It is situated 2 m. W. by S. of Logierait N 215 FEET 298 FLET Rocks Fig. 28. Caisteal Dubh, near Aberfeldy. (Mr Hutcheson.) Church, but on the opposite side of the Tay, 1050 ft. above the sea, on the top of an isolated height overlooking the valley of the Tay from Aberfeldy to Dalguise. It is an oval of 300 by 213 ft., somewhat sinuous on the E. The wall is much destroyed, but on the S.W. side there is a length of about 50 ft. tolerably well preserved, showing that the masonry resembled that of Dun Mac Tual. The wall is thicker, however, ranging from 14 to 16 ft. It is faced outside and in with large blocks. A crescentic annex, exactly as at Dun More (No. 26), strengthens the most vulnerable side: it projects about 80 ft. and is 240 ft. long. This side is further strengthened by a trench. The entrance to the main fort was apparently about the middle of the W. side, and the lunette contains remains of a circular structure 15 ft. in diameter. In this fort and in others, as at Dun Mac Tual, Mr Hutcheson noticed evidence of banking up with earth at the back of the wall. (b) STONE FORTS ON THE NORTH SLOPE OF THE Оchils. 31. For a stretch of 12 m. from the W. end of the Ochils eastward the northern slope of the chain is destitute of forts, and the first to occur, erroneously marked Roman Outpost' on the O.M., is 3 m. N.E. of Gleneagles, on the top of Ogle Hill, 13 m. E.S.E. of Auchterarder Church, 800 ft. above the sea, and 600 above the Ruthven Water to the N. A ridge descending gently northwards from Coul Hill (1006 ft.) and the main chain of the Ochils rises but a few yards to form Ogle Hill before falling abruptly to the valley of Ruthven Water. An apparently natural trench-like hollow, 75 ft. wide (B, fig. 29), separates the ridge from the site of the fort, A, which occupies the whole of the little summit of Ogle Hill, and is defended towards the ridge, reckoning from the interior, first by a scarp (section A B), 9 ft. high, without a parapet, but covered with loose stones, probably the remains of a wall fallen from the top; secondly, by a low rampart, at the foot of the scarp, falling on a terrace, which with a small trench forms an outer line of defence. The terrace has a rampart, D E, at the E. end only. These lines are much injured, and the only signs of defence on the flanks of the site is a doubtful double terracing. The interior may be about 150 ft, in length. 32. The next, also erroneously called · Roman Outpost' on the O.M., is ₫ m. E. of the last, on the top of Ben Effery (1200 ft.). This hill lies between the deep and steep glen of the Pairney Burn on the W. and the smaller ravine of Green's Burn on the E., which at their junction are 600 ft. below its top. From this direction Ben Effery has a remarkably bold, sharp, conical appearance, and the fort on the top is very strong by nature on three sides, pirtienlarly on the W., where it stands on the edge of a mural precipice (E, fig. 30), but the access is easy from the ridge descending upon it from the S., and it is overlooked from the summit, D, of a little elevation on the ridge, 250 ft. from the interior of the fort. The S. end, therefore, was defended by three parallel dry stone walls, BC, now cast down, 12 ft. apart, occupying a width of 60 ft., which run straight from the precipice edge for 70 ft., and then curve for about 50 ft. more to the angle of the E. face. The entrance is through this curved part. The steep faces of the E. side and N. end show traces of three or four terraces in continuation of the defences, till no longer needed on once more touching the precipice edge. 33. 14 m further N.E., and 3 m. E. of Auchterarder, is a fort on Rissie Line, 1064 it. above the sea and 900 above the valley. A single oval Ring, about 600 by 500 ft, on the O.M., surrounds the top (g. 3D). The actual top is a level, dry, grassy, pleasant space, A, of about 270 by 150 ft. The ring approaches it on the S. within about 30 ft., and at a lower level of 10 ft., but separates from it on the N. till it is 300 ft, distant and about 70 ft. lower. The approaches are long and difheult, usually steepest on reaching the ring, when they ease off to the top. From the W. and S. the descents are rocky and almost inaccessible. It is only for a small space on the E. that the approach is gentle. On the E. and N. the defence remaining is a grassy and stony mound, 15 ft. broad at the entrance, which is from the E. I could see no masonry, but in one part, for a stretch of about 100 ft., there is a row of large stones, 2 to 3 ft. in length, placed at the lower edge of the stony mound, and 7 ft. below its top (elevation and section, D), perhaps the base of a former wall built on the slope. A very large stone lies uncovered at the entrance. On the inaccessible S. and W. sides there is no mound or wall, but merely a terrace at the edge of the descent; and there is no sign of an inner defence for the level top. 34. Continuing still in a north-easterly direction along the N. slopes of the range for a distance of 5 m. we reach Castle Law, 2 m. S.S.E. of Forgandenny, on the top of a steep slope 700 ft. high, and about 950 above the sea, isolated on the other sides by short steep declivities. This fort was excavated in 1891 by the late Mr J. Weston Bell, Rossie, with the co-operation of Mr LindsayWood, the proprietor, and was planned by Mr J. H. Cunningham, C.E., then the treasurer of our Society. Some years afterwards I investigated the ground below the fort to the N. where several trenches and mounds were visible, and fig. 32 is founded on Mr Cunningham's plan of the fort with my own of the ground below. Two irregularly concentric oval walls, the outer 15 the inner 18 ft. thick, were found, under the grass-grown rubbish, still standing all round to a height of from 2 to 6 ft., with well-built faces. The dimensions over all are 360 by 190 ft. The only entrance is at the E. end, approached by a causeway, and 10 ft. wide. But it only pierces the outer wall and there is no entrance through the inner wall anywhere. The gateway had bar holes, and the entrance within it was flanked on the S. side by a mysterious broad wall connecting the outer and inner enceintes and prolonged into the interior. Beginning at the entrance and for a considerable distance along the S. side, the outer surface of the inner wall was pierced with a row of square holes and slits running deep into the substance of the wall (fig. 33), containing a great quantity of charred wood chiefly in powder, evidently the remains of timber that had been incorporated with the wall. To the N. the ground sloped gently to the edge of the steep descent, along which ran a low mound, concealing the remains of a substantial wall, enclosing between itself and the N. wall of the fort a space (a, fig. 32) equal in area to the interior of the main work. To the S. a short steep descent from the wall falls upon a trench (b on plan and enlarged section), with a mound on its outer side. The trench begins at the S. side of the entrance, whence a ruined wall projects so as to flank it; and at its W. end it is blocked by a little mound, d, which descends steeply beyond it upon the lower level space, e. Beyond the trench is the gently sloping space, f, which bears traces of terracing, bounded by a second treneli, g, beginning close to the W. end of the first, but diverging eastward and ending abruptly after a course of about 150 ft. In the first half of its course it has a rampart on its inner side, Beyond the second trench comes another nearly level space, h, bounded on the S. by a steep little slope or scarp, slightly mounded on the edge, and 1 Proc, S. A. Scot., 1892, xxvii. 14. |