Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: The West of Scotland Archaeology Service 2345 (None)
NMR: NR 36 SE 9 (37745)
SM: 3932
NGR: NR 3892 6483
X: 138920 Y: 664830 (OSGB36)
This is an unusual fort in islay and Argyll, not for its position on a ridge with a rock crag forming the SE flank, but for its use of ditches in the defences, which rise in four tiers to a relatively small enclosure crowning the summit (see also Atlas No. 2154). The latter measures 34m from NE to SW by 17m transversely (0.04ha) within a rampart reduced to an external scarp dropping down to a point where what may be occasional outer facing-stones can be observed. The slope below this has probably been scarped also, partly to provide material for the first of the outer ramparts, now reduced to a terrace, which is also accompanied by an external ditch some 3m below its crest. Set a short distance outside this ditch is yet another rampart, in this case still standing 1m high internally on the SW and dropping 3.2m into the bottom of an external ditch with a counterscarp bank, which survives only around the SW quarter. While at first sight the crag on the SE appears largely natural, close inspection suggests that it has been extensively modified, in effect to carry the outer ditch around this flank. The entrance to the fort climbs along the crest of the crag on the NE. The defences are overlain by later field banks on the NE, S and W, which may be contemporary with the small rectangular enclosure that can be seen within the interior.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -686638 Y: 7519895 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -6.168171713748878 Latitude: 55.80601573424709 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Argyll & Bute
Historic County: Argyll
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Killarow And Kilmeny
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: 90.0m
N/A
While this is traditionally identified as a prehistoric fort, the use of ditches and scarping may indicate that most of what is visible belongs to an undocumented castle, a possibility strengthened by the proximity of the parish church of Kilmeny. The topographical position is such, however, that it is likely to have been utilised whenever the need arose in the Iron Age or early medieval period.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: | A later rectangular enclosure standing within the interior is possibly contemporary with the post-medieval field banks that overlie the defences on the W, S, SE and NE |
First depicted on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Argyll and Bute 1882, sheet 198.13), it was visited in 1934 by Gordon Childe (Childe 1935, 83) and seems to have revisited the site in 1942 for the RCAHMS wartime Emergency Surveys. It was visited by RCAHMS in 1975 and surveyed in 1979 during the preparation of the County Inventory of Argyll (RCAHMS 1984, 94-5, no.157). The earthworks were Scheduled in 1977. It was photographed from the air by RCAHMS in 1980, and has also been photographed by CUCAP.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1878): | Named in Gothic type on the OS 25-inch map (Argyll and Bute 1882, sheet 198.13) |
| Other (1934): | Description by Gordon Childe (Childe 1935, 83) |
| Other (1942): | Description by Angus Graham and Gordon Childe for the RCAHMS wartime Emergency Surveys |
| Other (1975): | Visited by RCAHMS |
| Other (1977): | Scheduled |
| Earthwork Survey (1979): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1984, 94-5, no.157; RCAHMS DC153-4) |
| Other (2007): | Visited by the Hill-Fort Study Group |
Featureless apart from what is probably a later rectangular enclosure
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Rectangular enclosure
| 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 | ✗ |
Rectangular enclosure
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
See main summary
| 1: | None |
| 2: | Single entrance elaborated in three entries below |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North east): | In all ramparts |
| 2. Oblique (North east): | Gap in outermost rampart staggered to the W, exposing the visitor's right side below the middle rampart |
Three concentric ramparts and ditches, the outer accompanied by a counterscarp bank, and the inner encircling the summit
| Area 1: | 0.04ha. |
| Total: | 0.04ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.47ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 3 |
| NW Quadrant: | 3 |
| 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: 2
| ✗ | None |
Childe, V G (1935) 'Notes on some duns in Islay'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 69 (1934-5), 81-4
RCAHMS (1984) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Argyll: an inventory of the monuments volume 5: Islay, Jura, Colonsay and Oronsay. 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