Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: The West of Scotland Archaeology Service 232 (None)
NMR: NM 22 SE 3 (21638)
SM: 7761
NGR: NM 2649 2462
X: 126490 Y: 724620 (OSGB36)
A small fortification occupies the summit of Dun Cul Bhuirg close to the NW coast of Iona. While the greater part of the summit is bare rock, falling away precipitously around the W half, elsewhere the remains of a wall are visible forming an enclosure measuring about 45m from E to W by 35m transversely (0.12ha). Excavations 1957-59 uncovered the remains of a small, stone-founded hut measuring about 4.5m by 4.3m internally, with a well-built central hearth. Much of the pottery from this hut has since been lost, but analysis of the assemblage and three glass beads from here and elsewhere within the fort suggests a period of occupation between the 1st century BC and the 3rd century AD (Ritchie and Land 1980).
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -715449 Y: 7625348 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -6.426990492874506 Latitude: 56.33475996411951 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Argyll & Bute
Historic County: Argyll
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Kilfinichen And Kilvickeon
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: 51.0m
N/A
The report for the excavations (Ritchie and Lane 1980) gave a broad assessment of the date of the material recovered in the period spanning from the 1st century BC to the 3rd century AD, though this has not been refined with the new radiocarbon chronologies now available for similar pottery in the Western Isles. It is an assumption that this material relates to the occupation of the fort as such.
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 |
| Artefactual: | Pottery and beads |
RCAHMS collection also contains the excavation archive with photographs and also aerial photographs taken by CUCAP, John Dewar (1969)
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1850): | Noted (Graham 1850, 2) |
| Excavation (1957): | Thomas and Megaw 1957; Ritchie and Lane 1980 |
| Excavation (1958): | Burley and Fowler 1958, 14-15; Ritchie and Lane 1980 |
| Excavation (1959): | Thomas 1959 |
| Excavation (1968): | Reece 1973, 42-3; Ritchie and Lane 1980 |
| Other (1972): | Surveyed at 1:10,000 by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1979): | Survey and description (RCAHMS 1980, 76-7, no.133, fig 59; 1882, 30-1, no.2; RCAHMS AGD 624/1-2) |
| Other (1996): | Visited (Rees 1996) |
| Other (1998): | Scheduled |
Excavation uncovered a small hut with a central hearth
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 | ✗ |
Hearth
| 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 | ✗ |
Surviving assemblage catalogued in Ritchie and Lane 1980, and includes large collection of pottery, a fragment of bronze, a fragment of iron, three glass beads and several pieces of flint
| 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 | ✗ |
None known
| 0: | None |
| 2: | Not known |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
Single wall
| Area 1: | 0.12ha. |
| Total: | 0.12ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 0 |
| 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 |
Burley and Fowler, E and P J (1958) 'Iona'. Disc Exc Scot 1958, 14-15
Graham, H D 1850 Antiquities of lona. London
RCAHMS (1980) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Argyll: an inventory of the monuments volume 3: Mull, Tiree, Coll and Northern Argyll (excluding the early medieval and later monuments of Iona). HMSO: Edinburgh
RCAHMS (1982) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Argyll: an inventory of the monuments volume 4: Iona. HMSO: Edinburgh
Reece, R 1973 'Recent work on lona', Scot Archaeol Forum 5 (1973), 36-46
Rees, T (1996) 'Iona (Kilfinichen and Kilvickeon parish), multi-period archaeological survey'. Disc Exc Scot 1996, 19
Ritchie and Lane, J N G and A M (1980) 'Dun Cul Bhuirg, Iona, Argyll'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 110 (1978-80), 209-29
Thomas and Megaw, A C and J V S (1957) 'Dun Cul Bhuirg, Iona'. Disc Exc Scot 1957, 10-11
Thomas, A C (1959) 'Iona'. Disc Exc Scot 1959, 10
Topping, P G (1985) 'Later prehistoric pottery from Dun Cul Bhuirg, Iona, Argyll'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 115 (1985), 199-209
Topping, P G (1987) 'Typology and chronology in the later prehistoric pottery assemblages of the Western Isles', Proc Soc Antiq Scot 117 (1987), 67-84
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