HER:  The West of Scotland Archaeology Service 3332 (None)
NMR:  NR 72 NE 12 (38740)
SM:  3110
NGR:  NR 7824 2715
X:  178240  Y:  627150  (OSGB36)
This fort occupies the promontory forming the tip of Kildonan Point. While on the SE the interior descends into a broken rocky foreshore riven with gullies, elsewhere it is defended by a single wall up to 4m in thickness, which encloses a subrectangular area measuring about 64m from NW to SE by 55m transversely (0.37ha). Considerable portions of the massively constructed external face can be seen around the margins, set up to 1.8m below the lip of the promontory, and there is an entrance at the head of a gully midway along the NE side; the narrow gully that currently provides access through the NW side close to the N corner is not an original entrance. The rocky interior is largely featureless, apart from traces of more recent cultivation and stone clearance on the NW.
Citizen Science:  ✗
Reliability of Data:  Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation:  Confirmed
X:  -613560  Y:  7457108  (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude:  -5.51170622797237  Latitude:  55.487738782183676  (EPSG:4326)
Country:  Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority:  Argyll & Bute
Historic County:  Argyll
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland:  Campbeltown
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:  15.0m
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:   | Cultivation and stone clearance; there is also an OS triangulation station on the highest point of the interior on the SE |
None
1st Identified Map Depiction (1866):   | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Argyll and Bute 1869, sheet 252.6) |
Other (1955):   | Visited during RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands |
Earthwork Survey (1960):   | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1971, 71-2, no.167, fig 47; RCAHMS AGD 292/1-2) |
Other (1971):   | Scheduled |
Other (1977):   | Surveyed at 1:10.000 by the OS |
Other (2004):   | Coastal Zone Assessment (Cressy and Badger 2004; RCAHMS MS4040 ) |
Other (2013):   | Re-Scheduled |
Featureless apart from later cultivation and stone clearance
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:   | None |
2:   | None |
Guard Chambers:  ✗
Chevaux de Frise:  ✗
1. Simple Gap (North east):   | None |
Single wall cutting off three sides of a rocky promontory
Area 1:   | 0.37ha. |
Total:   | 0.37ha. |
Total Footprint Area:  0.46ha.
None
✗   | None |
✗   | None |
NE Quadrant:   | 1 |
SE Quadrant:   | 0 |
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   | ✗ |
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
✗   | None |
RCAHMS (1971) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Argyll: an inventory of the ancient monuments, volume 1: Kintyre. HMSO: Edinburgh
Cressey, M. & Badger, S. (2004) 'Coastal Zone Assessment Survey: Kintyre & Isle of Arran', CFA Archaeology Ltd,
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