CRAIG PHADRIG:

(Highland, 1.5 miles west of the town of Inverness)

At Craig Phadrig there is one of the most spectacular vitrified enclosures of Celtic Europe.

It is a sort of oval granite fort which looks like a citadel with a basin shaped depression at the centre, almost 9ft deep. The enclosure is constructed from granite blocks which have been vitrified - that is, turned into a glass-like form of rock - by temperatures of at least 1,300°C. No normal fire could have generated such intense heat. vitrified forts' exist in other Celtic lands. How were they produced? What was the secret of this ability to generate such high temperatures?