II.

PAPERS OF THE LITERARY CLASS.

I. An ACCOUNT of fome EXTRAORDINARY STRUCTURES on the Tops of Hills in the HIGHLANDS; with Remarks on the Progress of the Arts among the ancient Inhabitants of SCOTLAND. By ALEXANDER FRASER TYTLER, Efq; Advocate, F. R. S. EDIN. and Profeffor of Civil Hiftory in the University of EDINBURGH *.

IN

N the year 1777, an account was published by Mr JoнN WILLIAMS, mineral-engineer, of certain remains of ancient buildings on the fummits of fome of the hills in the Highlands of Scotland, which had hitherto escaped obfervation, and which to him afforded grounds for a very extraordinary supposition, That they had been cemented together by means of Fire. He mentioned feveral of those hills exhibiting remains of building, which he had visited and examined; particularly the hill of Knockfarril in Ross-fhire, Craig-Phadrick near Invernefs, Dun-Evan and Castle-Finlay in the county of Nairn, and the Castle-hill of Finhaven in the county of Angus. He described the vestiges of regular fortifications on the fummits of thofe

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*Part of this Paper was read in 1783, before the Philofophical Society of Edinburgh.. It is now enlarged, and printed by order of the Committee for publication of the Tranf actions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh..

thofe hills, of which the walls, remaining in fome places of several feet in height, were evidently compacted together by the vitrification of the stones of which they were built; and he offered fome ingenious conjectures with regard to the means employed in forming fuch extraordinary structures, and the purpofes for which they might have been reared.

THIS account, which Mr WILLIAMS himself candidly owned, was by many people treated as a fiction, excited, however, the curiofity of feveral travellers to vifit and examine fome of those hills which he had mentioned. In the fame year, 1777, Dr JAMES ANDERSON of Monkfhill, tranfmitted to the Society of Antiquaries of London, a very elaborate account of fome ancient monuments and fortifications in the Highlands of Scotland, contained in two letters, which are published in the 5th and 6th volumes of the Archæologia. In these he treats, at confiderable length, of the vitrified forts, and particularly of that upon the hill of Knockfarril in Rofs-fhire; and, agreeing with Mr WILLIAMS in the general idea, that, in rearing those structures, the builders had employed fire for the purpose of cementing the materials, he differs from him a little as to the manner in which he supposes the fire to have been applied to the mound

or rampart.

Ir is curious to remark, how the fame appearances, to dif ferent observers, lead to the most oppofite opinions and conclufions. The two gentlemen above mentioned feem not to have entertained the smallest doubt, that the vitrified materials on the tops of thofe hills, were the vestiges of works of art, and the remains of structures reared for the purposes of fecurity and The Bishop of Derry, when on a tour to the north of Scotland, vifited the hill of Craig-Phadrick near Inverness, and expreffed his opinion, that the mounds of vitrified matter were not the remains of any artificial work, but the traces of an ancient volcano. In the Philofophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London for 1777, Part II. No. 20. is an ac

defence.

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count of Creck Faterick, there termed a volcanic hill near Inverness, in a letter from THOMAS WEST, Efq; to Mr LANE, F. R. S. in which the writer does not hesitate to pronounce this hill an extinguished volcano; and having fent fpecimens of the burnt matter for the inspection of the Royal Society, the Secretary fubjoins a note to the paper, intimating, that " these specimens having been examined by fome of the Members well acquainted with volcanic productions, were by them judged to "be real lava." Such was likewife the opinion of a very ingenious Member of this Society, the late ANDREW CROSBIE, Efq; who, in an account which he gave to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh in 1780, offered fome curious conjectures with regard to the procefs of nature, by which he fuppofed the whole of this hill to have been thrown up from the bottom of the sea by the operation of intestine fire.

THE perufal of Mr. WILLIAMS's pamphlet and of Dr ANDERSON's account, as well as those differing opinions I have mentioned, excited my curiofity, in a journey I made to Invernessfhire in autumn 1782, to examine, with fome attention, fuch of the hills mentioned by Mr WILLIAMS as lie in that country; and I now propose to lay before this Society the result of that examination, which, however, I confine chiefly to Craig-Phadrick, as that which I have most minutely furveyed.

CRAIG-PHADRICK is a small conical hill, which forms the eastern extremity of that ridge of mountains which bounds Loch-Nefs upon the north-weft fide. It is fituate about a mile to the north of Inverness, and commands an extensive prospect of both fides of the Murray frith, to the distance of above forty miles. It is acceffible on two different quarters; on the west by a narrow but level ridge, which joins it to the chain of hills upon Loch-Nefs; and on the fouth-eaft, by an easy afcent from the high ground above the town of Inverness. When feen from the oppofite heights, it appears pretty much of a conical figure; the top cut off, forming a level furface, bounded at

each

each end by a small rising or shoulder. At the distance of three or four miles, its artificial appearance is more perceptible than upon a nearer approach, when the eye, seeing only a part, fails to take in the great outlines, and to perceive their regularity and fymmetry. A more distinct idea of the general form of this hill than can be given by description, may be obtained from a sketch taken from the oppofite high grounds, at a few miles diftance. See Plate I. fig. 1. In this sketch, Craig-Phadrick is marked by the letter C. B are thofe hills, a part of the fame ridge, which bound Loch-Nefs upon the north-west; and D is a conical hill opposite to Craig-Phadrick, on the other fide of the Murray frith.

ON approaching Craig-Phadrick from the level ridge upon the weft fide, what first prefents itself to view is a road cut through the rock, from the bottom to the fummit; in most places about ten feet in breadth, and nearly of the fame depth, winding in an easy serpentine direction for about seventy feet; by which means an afcent is gained over a very steep rock, which is otherwife quite inacceffible from that quarter. See Plate I. fig. 2. The form alone of this road leaves little room to doubt of its being an operation of art. I examined the fides of it, where it is cut into the rock, to fee if there were any marks of a tool. A labourer, who attended me with a mattock, or quarryman's pick, declared his opinion, that, in many places, there were marks of an inftrument fimilar to what he had in his hand; but the rock being compofed of many rounded pebbles, and when broken presenting a furface, in which the beds of those pebbles have often an appearance like what is made by the ftroke of a tool, I lay little weight upon that circumftance. The form alone of this road, as I have already faid, was fufficiently convincing to me of its being an operation of art.

FROM the nature of the ftone itself, of which this hill is formed, and from that compound appearance of water-worn pebbles, sticking in a cementing mafs, it has been conjectured,

that

that these pebbles, together with the bed in which they are lodged, had been forced up from the bottom of the sea, by internal fire struggling for a vent, which it afterwards obtained at the fummit. With regard to the nature of the stone of this hill, I fhall here obferve only, that this compound appearance in the rock at Craig-Phadrick, affords no more prefumption of this particular hill being forced up by fire from the bottom of the fea, than it does of all the furrounding hills for many miles having the fame origin. The greatest part of the hills which bound Loch-Nefs, both on the north and fouth, are compofed of the fame materials, or at least contain large strata of the stone I have mentioned. Yet none of those hills that I have seen, or on enquiry have ever heard of, exhibit the smallest appearance of the effects of fire; though, being infinitely higher than Craig-Phadrick, and confequently demanding a much greater force to raise them up, had fire been the agent, its effects on them would probably have been much more conspicuous than on a hill incomparably fmaller.

THAT the materials which compofe the hill of Craig-Phadrick, as well as all other hills, of which the ftone is of a fimilar nature, have originally been under water, I have not the smallest doubt. The compound appearance of the rock, which is evidently a mass of water-worn pebbles, of various fize, nature and colour, sticking in a bed of clay, leaves no room to doubt of its origin. But whether thofe hills, which confift of fuch compound materials, have been forcibly raised up from the bottom of the water, by fome convulfion of nature, or formed by a gradual alluvio, or depofition of materials under a mass of water which has now deferted them, (as fand-banks are formed in the fea) is what we have no grounds for determining with certainty, and few to found even a probable conjecture: Since, with regard to this particular hill, there never has been a section made across any part of it, from which the component ftrata might be perceived, or the difpofition in