Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Dumfries & Galloway MDG7302 (None)
NMR: NY 19 SE 3 (66942)
SM: 3350
NGR: NY 1540 9161
X: 315400 Y: 591610 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on the summit of Broom Hill, which is itself a spur of Cacrabank Hill. The defences display a complex history of construction, in which an oval fort was later remodelled with a massive earthen rampart with an external ditch, which was built across the interior from NNE to SSW. Subsequently, during the post-medieval period, the defences of the oval fort were first ploughed down with rig-and-furrow and then obscured by the construction of a substantial plantation bank roughly following the line of its inner rampart, and more recently still the defences on the W have been further reduced by pasture improvement outside the old plantation. In its first phase, the interior of the fort measured about 80m from E to W by 52m transversely (0.37ha), and the rampart and external ditch masked by the plantation bank, which presents an external scarp up to 1.6m in height, was supplemented around the western half of the circuit by an outer rampart and ditch, though these are heavily ploughed down and difficult to follow on the ground. In its second phase, the interior was reduced to a D-shaped area measuring 52m along the chord formed by the new rampart by 45m transversely (0.23ha); this rampart is up to 9m in thickness by 1.5m in height, and is accompanied by an external ditch 6m in breadth by 0.6m in depth. A well-defined gap towards the N end of the new rampart is evidently the entrance in the second phase, but the position of the entrance in the earlier configuration of the defences is unknown.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -370816 Y: 7403021 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.331094450374616 Latitude: 55.211489227164485 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Dumfries & Galloway
Historic County: Dumfriesshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Hutton And Corrie
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: 225.0m
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: | Ploughed down with rig-and-furrow an overlain by plantation bank |
First depicted in 1857 on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Dumfriesshire 1861, sheet 34.10), at which time the whole fort was incorporated into a plantation extending up the hill from the E, but by 1898 the trees had been removed from the fort itself (Dumfriesshire 1899, sheet 34.10), as Alexander Curle found it when he visited in 1912 during the preparation of the County Inventory for Dumfriesshire (RCAHMS 1920, 111, no.297). While Richard Feachem included the fort in his guide book, he failed to understand the complexities of the defences and may not have visited it (Feachem 1963, 116-17). George Jobey drew up a plan in 1968 during his survey of eastern Dumfriesshire (Jobey 1971), and the OS re-surveyed at 1:2500 in 1972, and again in 1978. RCAHMS prepared a more detailed plan in 1991 (RCAHMS 1997, 133, fig 128).
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1857): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Dumfriesshire 1861, sheet 34.10) |
| Other (1912): | Description (RCAHMS 1920, 111, no.297) |
| Earthwork Survey (1968): | George Jobey (copy RCAHMS DFD 337/1 P/CO) |
| Other (1972): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1978): | Surveyed at 1:10.000 by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1991): | 1:500 (RCAHMS 1997, 133, fig 128; RCAHMS DC32391 & SC1348571) |
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 | ✗ |
NO APPARENT FEATURES
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✓ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 1: | Extensively modified all round by plantation bank |
| 2: | No entrances recorded in the earlier fort |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (West): | In the second phase |
Single rampart and ditch supplemented on the W by an outer rampart and ditch, subsequently reduced in size in a second phase of fortification
| Area 1: | 0.23ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.37ha. |
| Total: | 0.37ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.7ha.
None
| ✓ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| 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 |
| ✓ | Outer ditch round W half of the circuit |
Number of Ditches: 2
| ✗ | None |
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland, London
Jobey, G (1971) 'Early settlements in eastern Dumfriesshire'. Trans Dumfriesshire Galloway Natur Hist Antiq Soc, 3 Ser, 48 (1971), 78-105
RCAHMS (1920) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Seventh Report with Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the County of Dumfries. HMSO: Edinburgh
RCAHMS (1997) Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Eastern Dumfriesshire: an archaeological landscape. HMSO: 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