HER:  Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust MPK984 (None)
NMR:  NN 84 NE 3 (25594)
SM:  4587
NGR:  NN 8632 4760
X:  286322  Y:  747601  (OSGB36)
This small fortification is situated on a low hillock on the shoulder of the hill dropping down to Aberfeldy from the SSE. Its defences comprise two elements: a thick stone wall enclosing a roughly circular area about 34m in diameter; and a belt of outer defences about 14m deep across the easiest line of approach from the S. These latter are made up of three ditches up to 3m in breadth by 0.4m in depth, which flank two intermediate earthen ramparts about 0.8m high. There is a possible entrance on the WSW, and the OS identified a second gap on the E. The interior is featureless.
Citizen Science:  ✗
Reliability of Data:  Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation:  Confirmed
X:  -428971  Y:  7680117  (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude:  -3.853512644938554  Latitude:  56.60652123288524  (EPSG:4326)
Country:  Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority:  Perth & Kinross
Historic County:  Perthshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland:  Dull
None
Extant   | ✓ |
Cropmark   | ✗ |
Likely Destroyed   | ✗ |
Formerly under trees
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:  335.0m
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:   | Heavy stone robbing to build the dyke that enclosed the plantation that covered it in the 19th century |
None
1st Identified Map Depiction (1783):   | Annotated Castle Dune on James Stobie's map of The Counties of Perth and Clackmannan (1783) |
1st Identified Written Reference (1842):   | Noted (NSA 10, Perthshire, 768) and anonymous notes (RCAHMS MS3076) |
Other (1862):   | Named The Dun in Gothic type on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Perth and Clackmannan 1867, sheet 49.10) |
Other (1888):   | Description by Alexander Hutcheson (1889, 362-5) |
Other (1899):   | Description by David Christison (1900, 70-1) |
Earthwork Survey (1957):   | Sketch-plan and description |
Other (1975):   | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
Other (1988):   | Scheduled |
Other (2001):   | Photographed from the air by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme |
Featureless
None
None   | ✓ |
Spring   | ✗ |
Stream   | ✗ |
Pool   | ✗ |
Flush   | ✗ |
Well   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
Under old plantation
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:   | Heavily robbed circuit |
2:   | None |
Guard Chambers:  ✗
Chevaux de Frise:  ✗
1. Simple Gap (West):   | None |
Single wall, with outer earthworks on the S
Area 1:   | 0.09ha. |
Total:   | 0.09ha. |
Total Footprint Area:  Noneha.
None
✗   | None |
✓   | None |
NE Quadrant:   | 1 |
SE Quadrant:   | 1 |
SW Quadrant:   | 3 |
NW Quadrant:   | 1 |
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 |
✓   | Across easiest line of approach |
Number of Ditches:  2
✗   | None |
Christison, D (1900) 'The forts, "camps", and other field-works of Perth, Forfar and Kincardine'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 34 (1899-1900), 43-120
Hutcheson, A (1889) 'Notes on the stone circle near Kenmore and of some hill forts in the neighbourhood of Aberfeldy, Perthshire'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 23 (1888-9), 356-67
NSA (1834-1845) The new statistical account of Scotland by the ministers of the respective parishes under the superintendence of a committee of the society for the benefit of the sons and daughters of the clergy.
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