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HER:  Dumfries & Galloway MDG3642 (None)
NMR:  NX 65 SE 11 (64047)
SM:  1058
NGR:  NX 6955 5336
X:  269550  Y:  553360  (OSGB36)
Situated on a low-lying hillock on the SE side of the River Dee, this earthwork is roughly rectangular plan, and measures about 50m from NE to SW by 42m transversely (0.2ha) within a stony bank largely reduced to a scarp between 1.5m and 3m in height. This evidently descends into an external ditch which is largely obliterated by cultivation, but measures at least 6m in breadth on the NE where an outer bank some 3.5m in thickness by up to 1m in height rides over the spine of the hillock. The entrance may have been on the SE. The interior is featureless.
Citizen Science:  ✗
Reliability of Data:  Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation:  Unconfirmed
X:  -449036  Y:  7334355  (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude:  -4.033762625934814  Latitude:  54.857996390956416  (EPSG:4326)
Country:  Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority:  Dumfries & Galloway
Historic County:  Kirkcudbrightshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland:  Kirkcudbright
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:  30.0m
N/A
In the absence of excavation, there are neither stratified artefacts nor radiocarbon dates to provide a chronology for the defences. If a rectilinear settlement probably late Iron Age
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 |
First depicted as a rectangular on John Ainslie's Map of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright in 1797, it is shown in 1850 on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Kirkcudbrightshire 1854, sheet 50) and again on the first 25-inch map (Kirkcudbrightshire 1895, sheet 49.14) as a rectangular earthwork, although in 1890 Coles came to the conclusion that it was an ellipse on plan (1891, 375-77, figs.17-19), an interpretation followed by RCAHMS investigators in 1911 (1914, 122-3, no.233). The earthworks were re-surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS in 1965. More recent oblique aerial photographs by RCAHMS in 2000 and 2002 suggest it is rectilinear.
1st Identified Map Depiction (1797):   | John Ainslie's Map of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright (1797) |
Other (1850):   | Depiction annotated Carse Moat and, in Roman type, Roman Camp, on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Kirkcudbrightshire 1854, sheet 50) |
Earthwork Survey (1890):   | Plan and description by Frederick Coles (1891, 375-77, figs.17-19) |
Other (1893):   | Depiction on 25-inch map (Kirkcudbrightshire 1895, sheet 49.14) |
Other (1911):   | Description by Alexander Curle (1914, 122-3, no.233) |
Other (1937):   | Scheduled |
Other (1965):   | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
Other (2000):   | Oblique aerial photography by RCAHMS |
Featureless and probably cultivated
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
0:   | None |
2:   | In 1911 thought to have been on the SE |
Guard Chambers:  ✗
Chevaux de Frise:  ✗
Probably two with a medial ditch
Area 1:   | 0.2ha. |
Total:   | 0.2ha. |
Total Footprint Area:  Noneha.
None
✗   | None |
✓   | None |
NE Quadrant:   | 2 |
SE Quadrant:   | 1 |
SW Quadrant:   | 1 |
NW Quadrant:   | 1 |
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:  1
✗   | None |
Coles, F R (1891) 'The motes, forts and doons of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright (part 1)', Proc Soc Antiq Scot 25, 352-96
RCAHMS (1914) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Fifth report and inventory of monuments and constructions in Galloway, II, county of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, Edinburgh
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