Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Dumfries & Galloway MDG2429 (None)
NMR: NX 34 SE 15 (62757)
SM: 1980
NGR: NX 3745 4188
X: 237450 Y: 541880 (OSGB36)
This small fort is situated on the summit of Barhullion Fell and measures about 39m from NNE to SSW by 24m transversely within two roughly concentric walls set up to 7m apart. Both walls have been heavily robbed, the inner comprising a low grass-grown mound of rubble some 5m thick pitted with small quarry pits, though on the W, where the natural topography of the summit is much steeper, a broad scree of bare stones spreads down the slope and probably hides the line of the outer wall. This latter is about 2.4m in thickness and has runs of outer facing-stones exposed on the NE and SW. The inner wall seems to have been constructed on a more massive scale and sunk into its core on the SW there is a stone structure with reveted walls measuring 1.4m square internally and up to 1.1m in depth. Later structures are often found utilising the ready supply of stone provided by a fort wall and there is no particular reason to this structure is contemporary with the wall, or indeed of antiquity, although RCAHMS investigators in 1955 thought there might have been a gallery within the thickness of the wall extending back round towards the entrance. In view of the evident disturbance by stone robbers any interpretation of irregularities in the surface of the rubble here is probably misleading. Nevertheless, the invesigators also recorded upwards of 40 stones belonging to a chevaux de frise, mainly on the NE, but with several on the S also, suggesting that these may have formed a belt around the eastern half of the defences. Some of the latter stones are almost certainly bedrock, and opinions vary as to the overall number of stones that survive, but there can be no doubt of the existence of the chevaux de frise extending up to 15m outside the outer rampart on the N; several stones are still upright, the tallest of which is about 0.75m high.
Citizen Science: ✓
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -503933 Y: 7312635 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -4.526907022381475 Latitude: 54.745531867770154 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Dumfries & Galloway
Historic County: Wigtownshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Glasserton
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: 130.0m
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: | None |
Depicted as a simple ring of hachures in 1849 on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Wigtownshire 1850, sheet 33), the later 25-inch depictions do not add much detail. A description appears in the County Inventory for Wigtownshire (RCAHMS 1912, 10, no.7), but it was not planned until a revisit by RCAHMS in 1955, when the chevaux de frise was recognised. The fort was re-surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS in 1973. The fort was also surveyed by AOC Archaeology Group as part of a community project on the Machars (Douglas et al 2012. 13 fig.15, 99-100). Visited by SH in 2009 and 2013.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1849): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Wigtownshire 1850, sheet 33) |
| Other (1911): | Description (RCAHMS 1912, 10, no.7) |
| Other (1951): | Scheduled |
| Earthwork Survey (1955): | 1:300 plan and description (RCAHMS WGD 13/1-2) |
| Other (1973): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (2009): | Visited by S Halliday |
| Earthwork Survey (2012): | 1:400 plan (Douglas et al 2012, 13, fig.15; 99-100) |
| Other (2014): | Visit by the Hillfort Study Group |
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
| 2: | A narrow gap on the E is probably as a result of later activity. |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✓
| 1. Simple Gap (South): | None |
Two walls enclosing the whole fort and a belt of chevaux de frise around the eastern half.
| Area 1: | 0.07ha. |
| Total: | 0.07ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.25ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 2 |
| Total: | 2 |
| 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: None
| ✗ | None |
Douglas, C, Hudson, G, Sproat, D and Cavers, G (2012) The Machars; An Archaeological Survey. Available online from AOC Archaeology Group.
Feachem, R (1963b) A guide to prehistoric Scotland, London Page(s): 160 Held at RCAHMS E.2.FEA
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 Page(s): 10, No.7 Held at RCAHMS A.1.1.INV(4).R
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