ao6 antiquities in Scotland. > -^ug- i'5»- 



veral other hills, fortified after the same manner as 

 that of Knockferrel, but I find they differ from each, 

 other in some particulars. At Knockferrel the vi- 

 ■trified crust surrounded the wall only on the outside, 

 •whereas at Tapo-noath in Aberdeenfhire, where a 

 large fortification of this kind has been, the vitrified 

 crust is only discoverable on the inner side of the 

 wall, without any marks of vitrification on the out- 

 side, except at one place, where the whole of the 

 conical wall is incrusted on both sides. I apprehend, 

 indeed, that the whole of the wall on this hill has 

 been originally incrusted on both sides, but as the 

 hill is very steep, and tlie wall has probably been 

 built very near the edge of the precipice, the founda- 

 tion has gradually given way, so as to allow the vi- 

 trified crust on the outside, to slip down the hill, at 

 the foot of which large mafses of it are still to be 

 -found in abundance ; and, being thus demolithed, no- 

 - thing now remains on that part of the wall but the loose 

 stones, that formed originally the heart of the. wall, 

 tumbled, in part, down the hill; whereas the vestiges 

 ■ of the inner crust, v/hose foundations remain firm, are 

 " still' distinctly perceptible. .The hill, on that part 

 where the wall remains entire, is lefs steep than the 

 other part of it ; the green sod remaining entire to 

 the very foot of the wall, which seems to confirm 

 • this conjecture. 



On the top of the bill called Dun-o-deer in Aber- 

 deenfliire, there are also vestiges of a fortification of 

 the same kind ; but as I have observed some parti- 

 culars that I did not discover in any of the other 



