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The Vitrified Fort

Climb to the summit of Carradale Point, avoiding the beady-eyed gaze of the local feral goats, and you will come the remains of an oval-shaped and heavily vitrified fort.

As well as a 4.5m thick bank of rubble that incorporates large masses of vitrified wall core, there are also fragments of walls still visible blocking natural gullies.

This is considered a wonderful example of the type of 60 such vitrified forts in Scotland that were constructed more than 2,000 years ago.

They’re all notable for one unique feature. Their rock walls were fused together into a solid surface through a process called vitrification: the astonishing transformation of rocks into glass.

Some historians have claimed some sort of ancient superweapon was used to melt the stones. However, in 2018 archaeologists from Forest Enterprise Scotland working with Stirling University used tests to show a timber superstructure supported by the ramparts may have been set alight, with the fire burning down on the stones and heating them up like an oven.

External Link: https://canmore.org.uk/site/39221/carradale-point