Auchenlaich Hillfort

Auchenlaich Hillfort is situated on the western bank of the Keltie Water on a low hill overlooking the Brackland Glen, around 2km east of Callander. The fort’s defences are formed of a single bank and ditch, oval in plan. The rampart stands to a maximum height of 3.5m above the current base of the ditch, suggesting that the enclosing works would formed been a massive edifice in their day. A huge boulder at the eastern end of the site might mark one side of an entrance into the fort. There are no known features inside the fort to give clues to its interior layout.

Auchenlaich is now surrounded by forestry, its oval shape picked out in the planting pattern
Image: Maxar, Microsoft

Does the massive boulder shown here mark an original, perhaps “formal”, entrance into the fort?

Excavations at Auchenlaich

Excavations in 2021 confirmed that the rampart was constructed of earth, and that a break in the rampart at the western end does represent an original entrance into the fort rather than a more recent breach.