#craig phadrig

[nosasblog]

Torvean Hillfort, Inverness: Managing a Forgotten Site

Torvean Hillfort, Inverness: Managing a Forgotten Site

by Jonathan Wordsworth

Lying less than 2 kilometres from the centre of Inverness, Torvean Hillfort  is a much neglected Scheduled Monument (SM3806 –see also Highland Council MHG3749) of national importance, situated on the edge of the former Torvean Quarry and currently obscured by mature woodland, scrub and rough vegetation.  It is also suffering from persistent trail bike damage that is…

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[racheljatravels]

Craig Phadrig is an hill fort from the Iron Age (i.e. it’s around 2,500 years old). It’s apparently where King Brude / Bridei (a famous, pagan, Pictish king) had his fortress and where Saint Columba came to meet with him in 565 AD.

Furthermore, it’s a vitrified fort, which means that at some point the stone walls were exposed to intense heat of up to 1,200 degrees Celsius, causing some of the rock to melt and fuse together. Why and how this was done is unknown, but it was certainly deliberate - perhaps a deliberate act of destruction for ritual purposes (someone once told me that when behaviour is completely incomprehensible, archaeologists always put it down to ritual purposes). However, Craig Phadrig appears to have been vitrified before occupation, so... yeah.

Honestly? Nowadays it just looks like a hill with a suspiciously regular, shallow basin at the top of it. Good views though.