The wonderfully named Cow Castle hill fort can be found near the village of Coulter in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is fiercely protected on all sides by the hill’s steep slopes but can be accessed from the north-eastern side.
Since its Iron Age occupation, the site has been subjected to various cultivations, quarrying, and stone-robbing. While this makes it difficult to glean the full extent of the fort, aerial images and interpretations show that at least two structural periods took place here. In the first period, there were two ramparts and ditches used to defend the fort, with a quarry site present that provided additional rampart materials. The second construction phase used a lot of the earlier defence structures, but the enclosed area was reduced in size. There is evidence of at least three ring-ditch houses in the innermost enclosure.
To find out more see the CANMORE entry on this location here.
Image shows Cow Castle landscape with hillfort centre left.
