For this reason we are unable to compare the vitrified forts of Scotland with the scorified and vitrified ramparts which have been occasionally remarked as occurring in other countries of Europe. I know no example in England, but a considerable number have been noticed in France (_Memoires de la Soc. Antiq. de France_, vol. xxxviii. p. 83), one of which, at Peran in Brittany, has only the upper part of the walls vitrified, a circumstance which has also been noticed with respect to several of the Scottish forts. From the fact of a Roman roofing tile having been found firmly attached to the melted stones of the vitrified part of the wall of this fort, it is inferred that the period of the vitrifaction was subsequent to the Roman conquest. Scorified ramparts in Bohemia have been described by Dr. Jul. E. Fodisch in the _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. viii. p. 155. It has been frequently stated that they do not occur in Ireland, but Dr. Petrie has noted four in Londonderry and one in Cavan (Stokes’s _Life of Dr. Petrie_, p. 223).
The fort on Knockfarril, which overlooks the valley of Strathpeffer, in Ross-shire, encloses an oval area of about 120 paces in length by about 40 in breadth. It was first described by Mr. John Williams in 1777.[101] Sections were then made through it from side to side, and Mr. Williams states that on the north side he found the ruins of the wall 12 feet high, although he came to the conclusion that this was a section of the width of the wall which had fallen flat outwards. With regard to the phenomena of vitrifaction, he states that the whole wall has been run together into one solid mass, but in another place he states that at the outskirts of the ruins and at the bottom of the hill there was a great quantity of large stones which had not been touched by fire, and from this he concluded that there had been some kind of stone buildings going round on the outside of the vitrified walls. It is to be observed that when he speaks of the whole wall being run together into one solid mass, he is not stating a fact, which he has observed, but a conclusion which he has formed from a partial examination. “I am of opinion,” he says, “and it appears by the ruins that the whole of the surrounding wall on Knockfarril has been run together by vitrifaction much better than the most of the kind I have seen.” He states also that immediately on the inside of the surrounding walls there were ruins of buildings in which the vitrifaction was much less complete, and these he imagined to have been a range of habitations reared under the shelter of the outer wall.