Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Highland HER MHG4348 (None)
NMR: NN 17 SW 6 (23727)
SM: 2893
NGR: NN 1270 7012
X: 212700 Y: 770120 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on a summit forming part of the ridge on the W flank of Glen Nevis opposite Ben Nevis. A spectacular position, the core of the fort itself is pear-shaped, with its long axis lying ENE and WSW above a hillside that falls away on the E all the way down to the floor of the glen. The rough interior slopes towards the WSW, measuring about 46m in length and contracting from 27m in breadth on the WSW to 11m on the ENE (0.1ha) within a heavily vitrified wall spread between 4.5m and 8m in thickness and up to 2.5m in height. The narrow gap on the W used by the modern path to the summit is probably the entrance. In addition to the vitrified wall enclosing the summit, there are traces of an outer wall set much further down the slope, swinging round the N, E and W flanks of the low rise some 110m to the NNW and petering out in boggy ground at the foot of the slope below the N flank of the summit, only to re-appear around its S and SE flank. Probably enclosing an area of at least 1.7ha, the character of this outer enclosure and its relationship to the fort on the summit are uncertain, but it is likely to have been a free-standing enclosure in its own right. Within its interior, at the foot of the slope dropping down from the summit on the N, there is a circular depression some 4m in diameter by 0.5m deep which is possibly the mouth of a well or cistern. A programme of excavation was initiated in 2015 by AOC Archaeology on behalf of the Forestry Commission, in the first season sectioning the core defences and confirming the presence of the outer enclosure on the N.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -564137 Y: 7716283 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -5.0677308383276305 Latitude: 56.78491285398149 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Highland
Historic County: Inverness-shire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Kilmallie
None
| Extant | ✓ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✗ |
Hilltop left clear of the surrounding forestry
| 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: 345.0m
N/A
Radiocarbon dates are not yet available from the excavations
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | Possible transverse wall inserted into the summit fort; excavation found occupation on the rubble from the destroyed wall |
None
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1777): | Noted (Williams 1777, 38) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1870): | Annotated Fort (Remains of Vitrified Fort) on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, Mainland, 1873, sheet 160) |
| Earthwork Survey (1888): | Sketch-plan and description by David Christison (1889, 371- 4, fig 1; 1898, 176-7, fig 65) |
| Other (1943): | Noted by Angus Graham and Gordon Childe for RCAHMS wartime Emergency Surveys (RCAHMS MS 401/1) |
| Other (1956): | Description for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (RCAHMS WP000775; Feachem 1963, 127) |
| Other (1968): | Visited and photographed by Helen Nisbet (1974; 1975) |
| Other (1970): | Surveyed at 1:10,000 by the OS |
| Other (1994): | Visited and photographed by Highland Council staff |
| Other (1995): | Scheduled |
| Other (2008): | Description by Matt Ritchie (2009, 101-2) |
| Earthwork Survey (2010): | Plan and description by Headland Archaeology Ltd (2011) |
| Excavation (2015): | By AOC Archaeology on behalf of the Forestry Commission (https://www.aocarchaeology.com/news/article/dun-deardail-2015/) |
Featureless apart from a possible transverse wall that may be of later date
Lies within the outer enclosure
| None | ✗ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✓ |
| Other | ✗ |
Possible well within the outer 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 | ✗ |
NO APPARENT FEATURES
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✓ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 1: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (West): | In the inner fort |
Single vitrified wall taking in the summit, and a much larger area enclosed by a wall set lower down the slope, though its extent has yet to be confirmed on the S flank of the hill.
| Area 1: | 0.1ha. |
| Area 2: | 1.7ha. |
| Total: | 1.7ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | With the uncertain character of the outer enclosure it has been omitted from this analysis |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| 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 |
Christison, D (1889) The duns and forts of Lorne, Nether Lochaber, and the neighbourhood'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 23 (1888-9), 368-432
Christison, D (1898) Early fortifications in Scotland: motes, camps and forts: the Rhind lectures in archaeology for 1894. Blackwood & Sons: Edinburgh
Cotton, M A (1954) 'British camps with timber-laced ramparts'. Archaeol J 111 (1954), 26-105
Feachem, R W (1977) Guide to prehistoric Scotland, London
Headland Archaeology Ltd 2011 A Topographic Survey of Five Pictish Forts in the Highlands. Report to the Forestry Commission
Nisbet, H C (1974) 'A geological approach to vitrified forts, part I: the archaeological and scientific background'. Sci & Archaeol 12 (1974), 3-12
Nisbet, H C (1975) 'A geological approach to vitrified forts, part II: bedrock and building stone'. Sci & Archaeol 15 (1975), 11
Ritchie, M (2009) 'Dun Deardail Fort, Glen Nevis, Highland (Kilmallie parish), conservation management'. Disc Exc Scot, New Ser 10 (2009), 101-102
Williams, J (1777) An account of some remarkable ancient ruins, lately discovered in the highlands and northern parts of Scotland: in a series of letters to G.C.M. Esq. 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