The hill fort is crowned by a substantial cairn... can’t locate it on RCAHMS (etc) so guess the assumption is it’s modern. However after having a close look at the footprint – for what it’s worth – I reckon the evidence does not support that. Yeah, it would seem this has been here quite a while and its status is worthy of reappraisal.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Terrific picture, looks like a cairn to me.
You certainly get aboot dont you, d'you sleep in the car every night ?
Mostly, yes. Tried Scottish YHs in early 00's and... to paraphrase Groucho.... found that I didn't want to be in a club that would have me as a member and then allow people to take the piss. Don't get Centre Parcs, don't get organised rambles... don't get the need for constant noise and 'entertainment'. However I appreciate this just may be me. Aspergers, or something. Don't believe in a god... any god... but overwhelmed by contours and subtle changes in colours. The way crows protect their young at any cost. The way bumble bees help keep this planet alive when logic says they can not fly. Well, you can when you feed on pure nectar. Perhaps there's a lesson there?
Some cairn, looks too big and well-formed for something wholly modern. Nice comment by the way. Just home after two weeks with no internet, you've certainly been busy :)
The Meldons are a mess on RCAHMS. Photos of forts on White Meldon are placed in entries for settlements on Black Meldon etc. The surveying of the area seems to have been done in the 1950's and 60's (lots of the very brief entries are made of information gleaned from "Feachem's Notebooks").It is a relatively tiny area which is very rich in settlement/ cultivation and burials into the IA. I think it needs a few fresh eyes looking over it.
There are quite a number of burial cairns a few hundred yards further up the Meldon Valley at Harehope and Greenknowe.
The view from the top of Black Meldon is pretty special and has a rather unexpected vista onto the straight sides of the big Roman Fort at Lyne (Hallyne).
It's taken best part of three weeks to make sense of the mass of images I took this time around... a lot of the sites were completely opportunistic adhoc visits so I've had to do a lot of research back home to determine what they were. One or two turned out to be medieval but mostly it seems the megalithic antennae were in working order.