Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Dumfries & Galloway MDG804 (None)
NMR: NX 05 SW 6 (60642)
SM: 1987
NGR: NX 0356 5058
X: 203560 Y: 550580 (OSGB36)
This fort occupies a steep-sided coastal promontory and is defended by a belt of three ramparts with external ditches which block the level approach from the NE and drop down the escarpment on the SE side of the promontory to the edge of the cliff-edge below. The ramparts diminish in size from the interior outwards, ranging from 8m to 3.5m in thickness by from 1.8m to 0.6m in height; the ditches accompanying them are up to 4.5m in breadth and 0.8m in depth, and there are possible traces of a counterscarp bank on the lip of the outermost. The present entrance approaches along the SE side of the promontory, but traces of the ramparts and ditches can be seen crossing the gap, indicating that this was not an original feature of the fort. The interior on the top of the promontory measures 39m from NE to SW by 30m transversely (0.09ha), though including an unusable area on the escarpment on the SE side of the promontory an overall area of 0.17ha is cut off behind the defences. A later turf bank, which extends round the lip of the promontory and cuts across the defences on both sides, probably relates to the sheep ree shown here on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -563116 Y: 7325368 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -5.058553960202148 Latitude: 54.81150075686629 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Dumfries & Galloway
Historic County: Wigtownshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Stoneykirk
None
| Extant | ✓ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✗ |
None
| Woodland | ✗ |
| Commercial Forestry Plantation | ✗ |
| Parkland | ✗ |
| Pasture (Grazing) | ✓ |
| Arable | ✗ |
| Scrub/Bracken | ✗ |
| Bare Outcrop | ✗ |
| Heather/Moorland | ✗ |
| Heath | ✗ |
| Built-up | ✗ |
| Coastal Grassland | ✓ |
| Other | ✗ |
None
| Contour Fort | ✗ |
| Partial Contour Fort | ✗ |
| Promontory Fort | ✓ |
| Hillslope Fort | ✗ |
| Level Terrain Fort | ✗ |
| Marsh Fort | ✗ |
| Multiple Enclosure Fort | ✗ |
| Hilltop | ✗ |
| Coastal Promontory | ✓ |
| Inland Promontory | ✗ |
| Valley Bottom | ✗ |
| Knoll/Hillock/Outcrop | ✗ |
| Ridge | ✗ |
| Cliff/Plateau-edge/Scarp | ✗ |
| Hillslope | ✗ |
| Lowland | ✗ |
| Spur | ✗ |
Dominant Topographic Feature: None
| North | ✗ |
| Northeast | ✗ |
| East | ✗ |
| Southeast | ✗ |
| South | ✗ |
| Southwest | ✗ |
| West | ✗ |
| Northwest | ✗ |
| Level | ✓ |
Altitude: 75.0m
N/A
In the absence of excavation, there are neither stratified artefacts nor radiocarbon dates to provide a chronology for the defences.
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | The defences are overridden by a post-medieval turf bank, probably forming part of a sheep ree shown on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map. |
Noted by the OS surveyors in 1847 and George Wilson about 1885 (1885, 63), the fort was surveyed in greater detail by the OS in 1893 for the 25-inch map and in 1911 described by RCAHMS in the County Inventory for Wigtownshire (1912, 151, No. 431). It was Scheduled in 1940. Surveyed in 1955 during the RCAHMS Marginal Lands Survey, The fort was subsequently visited by the OS in 1970 and RCAHMS in 1984.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1847): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Wigtownshire 1850, sheet 22) |
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1885): | Wilson 1885, 63 |
| Earthwork Survey (1893): | OS 1:2500 map (Wigtownshire 1894, sheet 22.10) |
| Other (1911): | Description (RCAHMS 1912, 151, No. 431) |
| Other (1940): | Scheduled |
| Earthwork Survey (1955): | RCAHMS DP151588 |
| Other (1970): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1984): | Description by RCAHMS |
Featureless
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
None
| No Known Features | ✓ |
| Round Stone Structures | ✗ |
| Rectangular Stone Structures | ✗ |
| Curvilinear Platforms | ✗ |
| Other Roundhouse Evidence | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
None
| No Known Excavation | ✓ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
| Nothing Found | ✗ |
None
| No Known Geophysics | ✓ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
| Nothing Found | ✗ |
None
| No Known Finds | ✓ |
| Pottery | ✗ |
| Metal | ✗ |
| Metalworking | ✗ |
| Human Bones | ✗ |
| Animal Bones | ✗ |
| Lithics | ✗ |
| Environmental | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
None
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✓ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 1: | Traces of ramparts and ditches in the entrance passage suggest this is secondary. |
| 2: | None known |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
Three earthen ramparts with external ditches and possible traces of a counterscarp bank on the outermost.
| Area 1: | 0.09ha. |
| Total: | 0.09ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.2ha.
None
| ✗ | Much of interior unusable as very steeply sloping. |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 0 |
| Total: | 3 |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✓ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
None
| None | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank | ✓ |
| Stone Wall | ✗ |
| Rubble | ✗ |
| Wall-walk | ✗ |
| Evidence of Timber | ✗ |
| Vitrification | ✗ |
| Other Burning | ✗ |
| Palisade | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank | ✗ |
| Berm | ✗ |
| Unfinished | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
None
| None | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank | ✗ |
| Stone Wall | ✗ |
| Murus Duplex | ✗ |
| Timber-framed | ✗ |
| Timber-laced | ✗ |
| Vitrification | ✗ |
| Other Burning | ✗ |
| Palisade | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank | ✗ |
| Berm | ✗ |
| Unfinished | ✗ |
| No Known Excavation | ✓ |
| Other | ✗ |
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
Number of Ditches: 3
| ✗ | None |
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland, London (p 161).
RCAHMS (1912) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Fourth report and inventory of monuments and constructions in Galloway, 1, county of Wigtown, Edinburgh.
Wilson, G (1885) 'Description of ancient forts, etc., in Wigtownshire'. Archaeol Hist Collect Ayrshire Galloway 5 (1885), 62-73.
Atlas of Hillforts:
Wikidata:
This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
and should be cited as:
Lock, Gary and Ralston, Ian. 2024. Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland. Available at: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk
Document Version 1.1