Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: The West of Scotland Archaeology Service 4836 (None)
NMR: NS 05 NE 4 (40254)
SM: None
NGR: NS 0548 5868
X: 205480 Y: 658684 (OSGB36)
The fortification on Dun Scalpsie, a steep-sided hillock on the old shoreline on the NW side of Scalpsie Bay, comprises two elements: an inner enclosure on the summit; and an outer enclosure contouring round the hillock at a lower level. The enclosure on the summit is a roughly oval dun and measures about 24m from NE to SW by 18m transversely within a ruinous wall up to 4.3m in thickness where the faces are preserved on the S, but rather thinner in the entrance passage on the NW. The latter is relatively well-preserved, its sides still standing 1.2m high in the 1890s (Hewison 1893, 282), though only about 0.7m high in 1943. The outer enclosure is probably the remains of a fort, forming an irregular oval on plan, and tapering to a point where the wall runs up against an outcrop on the SSW. It measures about 70m from NNE to SSW by 35m transversely (0.18ha) within a wall reduced to little more than a terrace. Occasional stones of the inner and outer faces are visible, indicating an overall wall thickness on the E of about 3.5m, though the band of rubble elsewhere is much narrower, while on the W it merges with that of the dun on the summit; the entrance is also in this sector, coinciding with entrance into the dun and creating a faced passage 2m wide and 5m in overall length. The interior largely comprises the steep NE and SE flank of the hillock, but at the NNE end there are traces of a probable house platform about 8m in diameter. A small excavation carried out in 1959 (MacCallum 1959; 1963) on the S side of the interior of the dun revealed the inner face of the wall, built of large stones and pinnings and standing about 0.9m high, and possibly with evidence of a rougher later wall overlying it. A layer of clay butted against the basal course of the main wall, above which there were successive layers containing: domestic debris; sand of gravel; and tumbled stones from the wall mixed with more domestic debris. The finds from the layer above the clay included a fragment of bone comb, two whetstones, a spindle whorl and a fragment of slag.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -568129 Y: 7515193 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -5.103591424569565 Latitude: 55.782269892750165 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Argyll & Bute
Historic County: Buteshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: North Bute
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: 40.0m
N/A
No dating evidence was recovered by the excavations
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 ovelain by post-medieval field dykes and WWII Home Guard defences are built into the wall |
First depicted in 1863 on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Argyll and Bute 1869, sheet 215.5), it was described by the Rev J K Hewison about 1893 (Hewison 1893, 282), and in 1943 during the RCAHMS Emergency Surveys. Excavations were carried out in 1959 (MacCallum 1959; 1963), and it was visited by the OS in 1976. It was photographed by the RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1993 and 2009, and surveyed in detail by RCAHMS in 2010.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1863): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Argyll and Bute 1869, sheet 215.5) |
| Other (1893): | Description by J K Hewison (1893, 282) |
| Other (1943): | Description (RCAHMS Emergency Surveys) |
| Excavation (1959): | Small trench (MacCallum 1959; 1963) |
| Other (1976): | Surveyed at 1:10.000 by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (2010): | Plan and description (RCAHMS DC49419 &SC1231932; GV004725 & DP097436 ) |
At least one house platform
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 | ✗ |
Two successive 'occupation deposits'
| 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
| 2: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (West): | None |
Single wall enclosing the fort
| Area 1: | 0.18ha. |
| Total: | 0.18ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✓ | Sequence uncertain, but as drawn on the RCAHMS plan the inner dun appears to overlie the fort |
| ✓ | This refers to the fort rather and does not include the dun |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| NW Quadrant: | 1 |
| Total: | 1 |
| 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 | ✗ |
Inner face of dun wall examined
| 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 |
| ✗ | Despite Rev Hewison's reference to two fosses on the SE, there are no ditches here, though a curious trench has been cut through the line of the fort wall on the spine of the hillock on the SSW, and predates the construction of a later field-dyke. |
Number of Ditches: None
| ✗ | None |
Duffy, P R J (2012) One Island, Many Voices: Bute, Archaeology and the Discover Bute Landscape Partnership Scheme, Donington (pp 50,51,55,59,75,76)
Geddes and Hale, G F and A G C (2010) RCAHMS: The Archaeological Landscape of Bute, Edinburgh
Hewison, Rev. J K (1892-93) 'On the Prehistoric forts of the Island of Bute'. PSAS 27 (1893-3), 281-93
MacCallum, R E (1959) 'Dun Scalpsie'. Disc Exc Scot 1959, 21
MacCallum, R E (1963) 'Report on the excavation at Dun Scalpsie, Isle of Bute, July, 1959', Trans Buteshire Natur Hist Soc 15 (1963), 45-52
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