Storm damage at Craig Phadrig hillfort, Inverness

results of the emergency archaeological evaluation

Abstract

In January 2015 severe winter storms caused substantial damage to Craig Phadrig fort (Scheduled Monument 2892) after two wind-blown trees exposed a section of the inner rampart. Prior to consolidation and reinstatement, Scheduled Monument Consent was granted for an archaeological evaluation of the damaged area. This revealed three principal phases of construction, the earliest a massive timber-laced wall burnt in the 4th–3rd century bc. The upper elements of this ruined structure were incorporated into two secondary phases of refortification comprising construction of a palisade along its crest followed several centuries later by reprofiling of the rampart upper bank. The chronology of the second and third phases is more equivocal, with a single 5th–6th century ad radiocarbon date providing a terminus post quem for the erection of the palisade, while the other features indicate activity in the 11th–13th centuries.