LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: The West of Scotland Archaeology Service 6926 (None)
NMR: NS 37 NE 2 (42357)
SM: 717
NGR: NS 3720 7944
X: 237200 Y: 679440 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on Carman, the southernmost and lowest of the rounded summits of a ridge of hills due W of Alexandria. Its defences comprise two main elements, with a relatively small inner enclosure standing on the N side of a much larger outer work, and though their perimeters coincide upon the N, the relationship between them is unknown. The inner enclosure is oval on plan, measuring about 55m from E to W by 40m transversely (0.17ha) within a heavily-robbed wall some 3m in thickness; large sectors of the wall have been all but removed, but where best preserved, on the W, it forms a bank up to 0.9m in height, along which occasional inner and outer facing-stones are visible, and on the W and S there are also traces of shallow internal quarries. Of the two gaps in the perimeter, on the SE and SW respectively, the latter is probably the original entrance. The interior is featureless. The outer enclosure measures about 145m from NW to SE by 130m transversely (1.5ha) within a wall reduced to a band of rubble about 2.4m in thickness, along which stones of both faces can be seen, including a substantial run of the outer face on the SW. Apparently butting onto this wall on the NE and SE is an outer wall, which forms an annexe from 10m broad on the SE to 20m on the NE, but in this sector both walls are reduced largely to scarps strewn haphazardly with large slabs and boulders up to 1.5m in length by 1.2m in breadth. Of the four gaps in the rampart shown on the plan drawn up by RCAHMS in 1955, three, on the NE, S and W respectively, roughly occurring at the extreme corners of the enclosure, appear to be original, with evidence of wear by traffic. That on the NE has a corresponding gap in the outer wall, as does the fourth gap on the E. The fort evidently stands on the route of a relatively easy passage across the hills and there are a series of hollowed trackways crossing the saddle to the N and possibly including the hollowed way extending up to the entrance on the W and another feature variously forming a terrace and a hollow that was described by the RCAHMS investigators extending along the N flank of the fort immediately below the perimeter. Within the interior there are at least twelve house platforms, while another three possible examples lie within the annexe on the E.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -513280 Y: 7554494 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -4.610874921743837 Latitude: 55.98029350904813 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: West Dunbartonshire
Historic County: Dunbartonshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Bonhill
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: 235.0m
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 |
Discovered and planned in 1954 during the RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (Feachem 1966, 83-4 fig.16), the fort was visited by the OS in 1956 and surveyed at 1:2500 in 1963. It was Scheduled in 1960 and revisited by RCAHMS in 1978.
| Earthwork Survey (1954): | Plan and description during RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (RCAHMS DBD 1/8 & DP148463 |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1956): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1960): | Scheduled |
| Other (1963): | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1978): | Description by RCAHMS |
The interior of the small inner enclosure is featureless, though up to 15 round-house platforms are visible within the interior of the outer enclosure
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
| 2: | A gap on the SE of the inner wall is probably secondary. Several modern breaches in the outer enclosure are mentioned by RCAHMS, but of four shown on the plan only three are thought to be original, occurring at the three major changes in the alignment of the wall. |
| 2: | One in the inner wall on the SW, and three in the outer on the NE, S and W respectively |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (South west): | In the inner circuit |
| 2. Simple Gap (North east): | In the outer circuit |
| 3. Simple Gap (South): | In the outer circuit |
| 4. Simple Gap (West): | In the outer circuit |
Single heavily robbed inner wall, with the wall of the outer enclosure accompanied on the E by a second wall forming what might otherwise be construed as a narrow annexe
| Area 1: | 0.17ha. |
| Area 2: | 1.5ha. |
| Total: | 1.5ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 2.0ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 2 |
| Total: | 3 |
| 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
| ✓ | At the time of its discovery, Kenneth Steer considered that the defences probably comprised a citadel with an outer enclosure, as did the Alcocks (Alcock and Alcock 1990, 101-3). For the purposes of the Atlas, the outer enclosure is identified as probably a fort in its own right rather than an annexe, enclosing an area of about 1.5ha. Nevertheless, the outermost rampart on the E flank forms what might be construed as a narrow annexe about 150m in length and from 10m in breadth at the southern end to 20m at the northern end. |
Alcock and Alcock, L and E A (1990) 'Reconnaissance excavations on Early Historic fortifications and other royal sites in Scotland, 1974-84: 4, excavations at Alt Clut, Clyde Rock, Strathclyde, 1974-75'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 120 (1990), 95-149
Feachem, R W (1966) 'The hill-forts of northern Britain', in Rivet, A L F (ed) The iron age in northern Britain. EUP: 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