Mr. Tate on the Celtic Town at Greaves Ash. 295 



lime nor even clay has been used to cement the stones to- 

 gether, nor is any tool mark visible. Many of the stones are 

 water worn, and have been taken out of the banks and chan- 

 nels of the river Breamish and the Linhope burn ; others are 

 more angular, and may have been detached from the rocky 

 hills around ; for this could have been done without much 

 mechanical skill, since the porphyry of these hills is jointed 

 and fissured in all directions, and readily yields both large and 

 small blocks. The storms of some twenty centuries or more 

 have broken over this town ; and the lapse of time would 

 slowly but surely reduce it to a ruin ; but the dilapidations 

 made by man have been more destructive than the elements, 

 for the walls have been a quasi-quarry, whence stones have 

 been taken to build fences and houses ; and hence little more 

 remains above the surface, than the foundations of the fortifi- 

 cations and dwellings. 



Western Fort. — The Western Fort (Plate 4, A) consists 

 of a number of hut circles and other enclosures surrounded 

 and defended by two strong stone walls. These walls, which 

 I shall call Ramparts, form irregular circles — one within the 

 other ; the inner circle having an average diameter of 213 

 feet and enclosing an area of about five-sixths of an acre, and 

 the other having a diameter of 309 feet and enclosing an area 

 of about two acres. Plate 5 gives a view of the lower forts, 

 as seen from Greenshaw hill, which is northward of this part 

 of the town. 



Ramparts. The outer rampart is the strongest ; the width 

 varying from 10 to 12 feet, while that of the inner one is 

 from 5 to 7 feet. Only one course of stones was seen above 

 the surface ; but excavations, made chiefly on the south side, 

 exposed three and four courses which show the character of 

 the work. Plate 6 is a view of this masonry as taken by 

 photograph. 



Both ramparts are built in the same manner, of unhewn 

 blocks of porphyry of various sizes and shapes ; those form- 

 ing the faces of the wall are usually large, and carefully fitted 

 to each other, while the space between is filled with others of 

 a smaller size. There are besides peculiarities of structure ; 

 at intervals long and very large blocks are set upright, and 

 at their sides flatter stones are built into irregular courses. 

 In some parts, we find courses of stone built across the breadth 

 of the wall at right angles to its face ; and this has been done 

 so carefully, that the places where it occurs have been mis- 



