LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: None No record found (None)
NMR: NS 67 NW 6 (45194)
SM: 1734
NGR: NS 6392 7893
X: 263920 Y: 678930 (OSGB36)
This fort occupies a hillock that projects from the escarpment forming the southern face of the Campsie Fells. Oval on plan, it measures 44m from E to W by 36m transversely (0.13ha) within a wall reduced to a mound of rubble between 4.5m and 6m thick and up to 1.5m high; occasional outer facing-stones are visible, and excavations in 1954-5 showed that it is 3.6m thick (Fairhurst 1956). Additional protection on the NNE, where the position of the fort offers no topographical advantage, has been provided by a complex belt of ditches and ramparts some 40m deep, which almost certainly represents several periods of construction. Elsewhere on the N the excavators also reported possible remains of an earlier rampart beneath the inner wall, while the terrace immediately to its front, which can be seen round most of its circuit and is accompanied on the S by a few earthfast boulders, is perhaps further evidence of a demolished circuit and a more complex history of construction. The absence of metallic residues from a piece of vitrified stone found in reuse in the interior suggests that it did not come from an industrial process, thus raising the possibility that an earlier phase of the defences had been destroyed by fire. There are entrances on the ESE and W, both of them approached by short lengths of hollowed trackways. Excavations within the interior revealed the presence of stratified deposits, with two successive levels of cobbling and paving, and, overlying the lower, evidence of the stone footing of at least one round-house (Fairhurst 1956). Finds from the excavations included: pottery; a fragment of iron; a stone ball; a stone disc; fragments of a shale armlet; a stone ring; and several stone lamps.
Citizen Science: ✓
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -465621 Y: 7555239 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -4.182741031978681 Latitude: 55.98403704395301 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: East Dunbartonshire
Historic County: Stirlingshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Campsie
None
| Extant | ✓ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✗ |
Heavy bracken cover
| 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: 220.0m
N/A
Small range of undiagnostic finds from the excavations
Reliability: C - Low
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | None |
| Artefactual: | None |
First depicted in 1859 on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Stirlingshire 1865, sheet 28.5), it was surveyed by RCAHMS in 1953 during the preparation of the County Inventory for Stirlingshire (RCAHMS 1963, 78-9, no.78, fig 17; Feachem 1963, 158). Excavations were carried out by Horace Fairhurst 1954-5 (Fairhurst 1956) and contemporary film of the work can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KOeXBWZloM. It was Scheduled in July 1959. The OS visited in 1957 and revised the survey at 1:2500 in 1966. RCAHMS revisited in 1982.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1859): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Stirlingshire 1865, sheet 28.5) |
| Earthwork Survey (1953): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1963, 78-9, no.78, fig 17; Feachem 1963, 158; RCAHMS STD 35/1-4) |
| Excavation (1954): | (Fairhurst 1954; 1956; archive held in RCAHMS DC5087-92; B80914-26 S; MS4564 & 40-1) |
| Excavation (1955): | (Fairhurst 1955; 1956; archive held in RCAHMS DC5087-92; B80914-26 S; MS4564 & 40-1) |
| Other (1957): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1959): | Scheduled |
| Other (1966): | Revised at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1982): | Visited by RCAHMS |
Featureless apart from modern marker cairn
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 | ✗ |
Cobbling and paving
| 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 | ✗ |
Finds from the excavations included: pottery; a fragment of iron; a stone ball; a stone disc; fragments of a shale armlet; a stone ring; and several stone lamps
| 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 (East): | Approach hollowed by traffic |
| 1. Hollow Way (None): | None |
| 2. Simple Gap (West): | Approach hollowed by traffic |
| 2. Hollow Way (None): | None |
Single rampart with additional belt of defences on the N
| Area 1: | 0.13ha. |
| Total: | 0.13ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.5ha.
None
| ✓ | Traces of an earlier inner rampart |
| ✓ | Only the inner is complete |
| NE Quadrant: | 4 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| NW Quadrant: | 4 |
| Total: | 4 |
| 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 | ✗ |
A piece of vitrified stone was recovered from the interior; no metallic residues were found on analysis, suggesting that it was not slag from an industrial process.
| 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 |
| ✓ | all on the N |
Number of Ditches: 3
| ✗ | None |
Fairhurst, H (1954) 'Meikle Reive Fort, Campsie', Disc Exc Scot 1954, 16-17
Fairhurst, H (1955) 'Meikle Reive hill fort', Disc Exc Scot 1955, 31-32
Fairhurst, H (1956) 'The Meikle Reive', Trans Glasgow Archaeol Soc, New Ser, 14 (1956), 64-89
Feachem, R W (1963) Guide to Prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: Edinburgh
RCAHMS (1963) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Stirlingshire: an inventory of the ancient monuments, 2v. 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