Cronk Sumark

Description

Cronkshamerk or Cronk Sumark. The sides of the hill to N and W are precipitous and require no artificial defence. The S side is steep but defended. The E side is a gradual slope and has the strongest defences. At the NW the hill rises to a steep peak which in the SW has been quarried away. The main defence is the inner of 2 banks which starts at the NE corner of the hill and encircles its eastern and southern sides. An outer and smaller bank starts close to the inner but diverges from it and may cut off the promontory to the E. The terraced road on the S which leads round the hill to the quarry and lies below the inner bank may be a continuation of this outer bank to the S. On the top of the hillinside these outer defences, and to the NW, are two square levelled platforms defended by banks and separated by two ditches and a causeway. The main inner bank was burnt and contained vitrified material. Burnt slate occured in one of the two small inner enclosures. Dr. Bersu suggested that the defences might be of several periods but in that case the main outer and inner banks did not appear on superficial evidence to be contemporary. There may be an entrance on the south. A possible example of a vitrified fort. Unexcavated and unplanned in detail (Cotton and Megaw 1946-50; Cotton 1954)
A good general report of the site but no justification could be found for the statement that the quarry road may be a continuation of the outer bank. No entrance was found through the outer defences. The inner fort 'B' is a grass covered almost square enclosure with average sides of 20.0m. It has an entrance 3.0m wide in the NE which leads down by a footway to a crude ditch which partially encircles the peak. The ditch is 5.0m wide amd 0.3m deep with a causeway 1.0m wide at E. 'B' is surrounded by a bank average 4.0m wide and 0.8 max inner height. Its outer slopes merge with the natural slopes of the peak. Between B and its twin peak A are 3 crude ditches with two intervening banks. The most westerly is the strongest and partially encircles A. This ditch is 3.0m wide and 1.5m deep. It has no causeway. Its outerbank fades to a weak glacis type bank with inner terrace 3.0m wide. The remaining two ditches each have a narrow causeway in line between A and B. The inner bank 'C' of the ?IA Hillfort is of glacis type with weak unsurveyable traces of an inner slope. The outer bank 'D' is stronger and consists of a terrace ave 7.0m wide with a spasmodic bank on its outer lip. The bank has an ave inner ht of 0.2m. The outer slopes of C and D merge with the natural hill slopes. No trace of a water supply was found. A notice indicates that it is protected (F1 JR 04-NOV-55). (PastScape)

Iron Age fort with some vitrfication, having an inner citadel, like that of the Herefordshire Beacon. (King 1983)

Comments (by Philip Davis)

Called a 'possible' castle by King (1983) although he tended to use this term for sites for which he had significant doubts.
While re-occupation of the pre-historic fort is not impossible, and the location has attractions as a centre to control the northern part of the island, there is no actual evidence of any medieval re-occupation that was military or by a high status individual. However, Megaw had thought the fortress was used by the 'Kings of Man in the Early Medieval Period' (Cotton 1954) and Megaw (1950) also writes 'the modern farmhouse just below the ramparts on the east probably occupies the site of a medieval grange and a lost Cistercian monastery' and was, traditionally, the site of a manorial court and gallows. It may be the fort itself was too inconvenient to access, particular on horse back, for medieval occupation but that a small manorial centre on its flanks maintained some of the ancient status of the site.