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HER: The West of Scotland Archaeology Service 5741 (None)
NMR: NS 25 NW 2 (41166)
SM: 10390
NGR: NS 2156 5880
X: 221565 Y: 658800 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on a steep-sided hillock on the hillside dropping down to Largs on the S side of Gogo Glen. Oval on plan, it measures about 50m from NNE to SSW by 33m transversely (0.13ha) within a heavily robbed rampart, which forms a bank about 2m in thickness and 1m in external height around the S, but elsewhere is marked by little more than a robbing scar. The entrance is on the NE, opening onto a natural gully in this flank of the hillock. The rocky interior is featureless. An external ditch noted by most investigators at the foot of the hillock on the S is almost certainly a misidentification of a hollowed trackway that can be seen climbing the slope on this side of the fort, while others are braided into a complex pattern on the northern flank.
Citizen Science: ✓
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -539625 Y: 7516628 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -4.847529819392664 Latitude: 55.789514814152135 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: North Ayrshire
Historic County: Ayrshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Largs
None
Condition:Extant | ✓ |
Cropmark | ✗ |
Likely Destroyed | ✗ |
None
Current Use:Woodland | ✗ |
Commercial Forestry Plantation | ✗ |
Parkland | ✗ |
Pasture (Grazing) | ✓ |
Arable | ✗ |
Scrub/Bracken | ✗ |
Bare Outcrop | ✗ |
Heather/Moorland | ✓ |
Heath | ✗ |
Built-up | ✗ |
Coastal Grassland | ✗ |
Other | ✗ |
None
Type: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: 180.0m
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
Principal Activity:Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
Post AD800 | ✗ |
Unknown | ✓ |
Pre Hillfort: | None |
Post Hillfort: | None |
First depicted in 1855 (Ayrshire 1857, sheet 3.12), it was visited by both David Christison and John Smith in the early 1890s (Christison 1893, 401; Smith 1895, 4). It was subsequently visited in 1942 as part of the RCAHMS Emergency Surveys, and again in 1952 for the Survey of Marginal Lands. The OS revised the 1:2500 survey in 1964, and revisited in 1983. It was Scheduled in 2002.
1st Identified Map Depiction (1855): | Named in Gothic type on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Ayrshire 1860, sheet 16.1) |
Other (1891): | Description by David Christison (1893, 401) |
Other (1895): | Description by John Smith (1895, 4) |
Other (1942): | Visiterd by Angus Graham and Gordon Childe for the RCAHMS wartime Emergency Surveys |
Other (1952): | Description for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands |
Other (1964): | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
Other (1983): | Visited by the OS |
Other (2002): | Scheduled |
Featureless
None
Source:None | ✓ |
Spring | ✗ |
Stream | ✗ |
Pool | ✗ |
Flush | ✗ |
Well | ✗ |
Other | ✗ |
None
Interior Features (Surface):No Known Features | ✓ |
Round Stone Structures | ✗ |
Rectangular Stone Structures | ✗ |
Curvilinear Platforms | ✗ |
Other Roundhouse Evidence | ✗ |
Pits | ✗ |
Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
Other | ✗ |
None
Interior Features (Excavation):No Known Excavation | ✓ |
Pits | ✗ |
Postholes | ✗ |
Roundhouses | ✗ |
Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
Other | ✗ |
Nothing Found | ✗ |
None
Interior Features (Geophysics):No Known Geophysics | ✓ |
Pits | ✗ |
Roundhouses | ✗ |
Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
Other | ✗ |
Nothing Found | ✗ |
None
Interior (Finds):No Known Finds | ✓ |
Pottery | ✗ |
Metal | ✗ |
Metalworking | ✗ |
Human Bones | ✗ |
Animal Bones | ✗ |
Lithics | ✗ |
Environmental | ✗ |
Other | ✗ |
NO APPARENT FEATURES
Interior Features (Aerial):APs Not Checked | ✗ |
None | ✓ |
Roundhouses | ✗ |
Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
Pits | ✗ |
Postholes | ✗ |
Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
Other | ✗ |
See main summary
Total Number of Breaks Through Ramparts:1: | None |
2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
1. Simple Gap (North east): | Hollowed approach via a gully. |
Single rampart
Enclosed Area:Area 1: | 0.13ha. |
Total: | 0.13ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
Multi-period Enclosure System:✗ | None |
✓ | None |
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 | ✗ |
Grass-grown rubble bank
Enclosing Works (Surface):None | ✗ |
Earthen Bank | ✗ |
Stone Wall | ✗ |
Rubble | ✓ |
Wall-walk | ✗ |
Evidence of Timber | ✗ |
Vitrification | ✗ |
Other Burning | ✗ |
Palisade | ✗ |
Counter Scarp Bank | ✗ |
Berm | ✗ |
Unfinished | ✗ |
Other | ✗ |
None
Enclosing Works (Excavation):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
Annex:✗ | None |
Christison, D (1893) 'The prehistoric forts of Ayrshire'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 27, 381-405
Smith, J (1895) Prehistoric man in Ayrshire. London
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