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the opposite shore is about one-and-a-half to two miles dis - Hamilton describes another vitrified fort that is much larger, sit- tant, is a small promontory connected with the mainland by a uated on the island at the entrance of Loch Ailort. narrow strip of sand and grass, which evidently at one time This island, locally termed Eilean na Goar, is the most east - was submerged by the rising tide. On the flat summit of this ern and is bounded on all sides by precipitous gneiss rocks; it promontory are the ruins of a vitrified fort, the proper name is the abode and nesting place of numerous sea birds. The for which is Arka-Unskel. flat surface on the top is 120 feet from the sea level, and the The rocks on which this fort are placed are metamorphic remains of the vitrified fort are situated on this, oblong in gneiss, covered with grass and ferns, and rise on three sides form, with a continuous rampart of vitrified wall five feet almost perpendicular for about 110 feet from the sea level. thick, attached at the SW end to a large upright rock of The smooth surface on the top is divided by a slight depres - gneiss. The space enclosed by this wall is 420 feet in circum - sion into two portions. On the largest, with precipitous sides ference and 70 feet in width. The rampart is continuous and to the sea, the chief portion of about five feet in thickness. the fort is situated, and occupies At the eastern end is a the whole of the flat surface. It great mass of wall in situ, is of somewhat oval form. The we age . vitrified on both sides. In circumference is about 200 feet, In this vitrification process, the centre of the enclosed and the vitrified walls can be huge blocks of stones have been space is a deep (evens traced in its entire length... We . in which are masses of the dug under the vitrified mass, and | fused with smaller rubble to form a vitrified wall strewed there found what was extremely hard, glassy mass. Explanations for about, evidently detached interesting, as throwing some h itrifi 0 fi f from their original site. light on the manner in which the the vitrification are few and ar Hamilton naturally asks a few fre av aml puee | etweeen, and none of them is oPviowauestons about the of the upper or vitrified wall for universally accepted. built as a means of defence? about a foot or a foot-and-a-half Was the vitrification the result was untouched by the fire, except of design or accident? How that some of the flat stones were was the vitrification produced? slightly agglutinated together, In this vitrification process, and that the stones, all feldspatic, were placed in layers one huge blocks of stones have been fused with smaller rubble to form upon another. a hard, glassy mass. Explanations for the vitrification are few and It was evident, therefore, that a rude foundation of boulder far between, and none of them is universally accepted. stones was first formed upon the original rock, and then a One early theory was that these forts are located on ancient vol- thick layer of loose, mostly flat stones of feldspatic sand, and canoes (or the remains of them) and that the people used molten of a different kind from those found in the immediate neigh - stone ejected from eruptions to build their settlements. borhood, were placed on this foundation, and then vitrified This idea was replaced with the theory that the builders of the by heat applied externally. This foundation of loose stones is walls had designed the forts in such a way that the vitrification found also in the vitrified fort of Dun Mac Snuichan, on Loch was purposeful in order to strengthen the walls. This theory pos- Etive. tulated that fires had been lit and flammable material added to produce walls strong enough to resist the dampness of the local climate or the invading armies of the enemy. It is an interesting FLOW fioge FLANGE theory, but one that presents several problems. For starters, there fon! is really no indication that such vitrification actually strengthens the walls of the fortress; rather, it seems to weaken them. In many cases, the walls of the forts seem to have collapsed because ' FLOW BANDS of the fires. Also, since the walls of many Scottish forts are only : a partially vitrified, this would hardly have proved an effective * he BUBBLE PIT building method. ; Julius Caesar described a type of wood and stone fortress, known as a murus gallicus, in his account of the Gallic Wars. This was interesting to those seeking solutions to the vitrified fort a mystery because these forts were made of a stone wall filled with = rubble, with wooden logs inside for stability. It seemed logical to suggest that perhaps the burning of such a wood-filled wall might & create the phenomenon of vitrification. te Some researchers are sure that the builders of the forts caused = the vitrification. Arthur C. Clarke quotes one team of chemists a from the Natural History Museum in London who were studying e the many forts:* Considering the high temperatures which have to be produced, and the fact that possibly sixty or so vitrified forts BUBBLE PIT —_— ON OF {| F [Pid Hy }) —_— ‘ [ETCH FITS ; are to be seen in a limited geographical area of Scotland, we A flanged tektite do not believe that this type of structure is the result of In this vitrification process, huge blocks of stones have been fused with smaller rubble to form a hard, glassy mass. Explanations for the vitrification are few and far between, and none of them is universally accepted. FLOW mioge FLANGE 1 BUBBLE PIT DIRECTION OF FLIGHT “2 * 0 A flanged tektite 56 + NEXUS AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2000