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Langloch Knowe

Hillfort

<b>Langloch Knowe</b>Posted by GLADMANImage © Robert Gladstone
Nearest Town:Biggar (5km NNW)
OS Ref (GB):   NT04383294 / Sheet: 72
Latitude:55° 34' 50.09" N
Longitude:   3° 31' 1.16" W

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<b>Langloch Knowe</b>Posted by GLADMAN <b>Langloch Knowe</b>Posted by GLADMAN <b>Langloch Knowe</b>Posted by GLADMAN <b>Langloch Knowe</b>Posted by GLADMAN

Fieldnotes

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The sloping flat top of Langloch Knowe almost seems (to my idiosyncratic mind, anyway) to represent the fledgling offspring of Cow Castle, the latter overlooking the site to the immediate north-west. Calf Castle it is, then.

According to Canmore Langloch Knowe represents:

"The slight remains of a fort.... Stone-robbing and cultivation have severely reduced the defences but enough remains to distinguish two structural phases, the earlier represented by two ramparts... and the later by a single wall which partly overlies [the earlier] rampart IA [RCAHMS 1978]"

Sure, there isn't a great deal of wall, rampart, or any other surviving archaeological detail remaining in situ. However Langloch Knowe is so compact it's impossible not to feel a direct human attachment with those occupying it in days of lore. Hey, perhaps the people of Cow Castle sent their children here to learn how to do 'adult stuff', whilst still keeping a beady eye on proceedings from across the way. And no doubt garrisoned some of their best marksmen (be it with bow or sling?) here in times of unrest to help guard the track through these hills with some lethal crossfire. Yeah, wish I'd brought my tent now. Always fancied being Ray Winstone in Beowulf... must be the six pack, I guess. But enough of that. The site accords a superb profile view of the mother enclosure rising above, whilst the steep flanks of Black Hill - or is it Gawky Hill? - tower above to the south. Not the place to stand a prolonged siege then, but handy to give that raiding party a damn good hiding.

As I sit in the sun, gazing toward the superb panorama of hills to the north-east, the farmer from Nisbet Farm comes careering along the track on a quad bike, with collies riding shotgun - as seems to be their modus operandi nowadays - engaged with moving sheep further along the valley. I'm relieved since I wasn't looking forward to stopping by and making him aware of the maternal distress of the ewe encountered earlier upon the Nisbet enclosure... nothing he hasn't seen before, of course.
GLADMAN Posted by GLADMAN
8th October 2013ce
Edited 8th October 2013ce