.S(l FuK'I'S IN ESKnAT;EMTTI];. 



had merely " to dig' to find," Imt this proved to be the only relic. 



I submitted it to Dr Anderson, Antiquarian Museum. Edin- 

 burgh, for his opinion. He said it was so defaced he could 

 scarcely express an opinion, but from its size and general appear- 

 ance he thoug-ht it might be of a period between the reigns of 

 Charles I. and William and Mary. It would be interesting to 

 know how that coin came there. 



AVhat surprises me in regard to this important fort is the 

 absence of a rubbish-heap, or " kitchen midden." I have searched 

 in vain for it, both by excavation, and by probing with an iron 

 rod every eminence within such a radius, outside its principal 

 trenches, as one might expect to find such a deposit, but invari- 

 ably the piclc or rod encountered solid r(jck. I cannot conceive 

 that the place was inhabited, for the many long years indicated 

 by the great labour bestowed upon its formation, without the 

 inhaV)itaiits having chosen some spot to deposit their rubbish. 

 Having failed to discover a " heap," I thought, as the ground at 

 one side of the fort is very steep down to a burn, this place might 

 have been used as a " shoot," but trenches cut at different points 

 across tlie steep hill revealed nothing. 



The ground being generally of a rocky nature, the soil is 

 very shallow, and the bones of animals used as food would not be 

 covered deep enough to preserve them from the destructive 

 effects of the weather ; tlie fort dwellers would, possibly, not be 

 rich in pottery, and took good cai'e not to brealc much of what 

 they did possess ; tlieir fuel would consist, probably, entirely of 

 wood and peat, and the ashes of such material would long ago be 

 incorporated with the soil, and hence the absence at the present 

 day of any vestiges of human occupation — of a domestic nature 

 at least. 



About half a mile to the north of Castle O'er house is another 

 work of the same formation as the minor forts ; it is marked in 

 the Ordnance Survey maps as a fort, though, from its position, it 

 is badly adapted for defensive purposes. Differing in position 

 from the others, it lies in a hollow on a piece of fiat ground, close 

 to the river bank, so close that the river has reduced it from its 

 original round form to a semi-circle, and it is commanded on its 

 west side by a semi-circle of very steep ground, which must have 

 rendered it subject to easy attack from that direction. M)- 



