Scroll left/right to view further images.
HER:  Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust MPK966 (None)
NMR:  NN 84 NE 11 (25574)
SM:  None
NGR:  NN 8542 4870
X:  285420  Y:  748700  (OSGB36)
This small fortification, which is situated a low knoll on the steep W bank of the Moness Burn, has been incorporated into the S outskirts of Aberfeldy and is now largely occupied by a house and its garden. Sub-rectangular on plan, its interior measures about 45m from N to S by 40m transversely (0.18ha) and the defences have comprised up to three ramparts, all reduced to scarps, which extend round the S, W and NW flanks. When planned by RCAHMS in 1957, the inner rampart still formed a low mound on the S, and the middle rampart appeared to spring from the line of the inner on the N. In 1962, prior to the construction of the house, Margaret Stewart excavated a trench across the inner rampart on the S, revealing an inner face with a hard-packed core of small stones, and along its outer edge a palisade which had been burnt. She also cut a trench across the outermost rampart on the N, but could find no trace of any structure. Nothing was found in two trenches dug within the interior, and the only find was a scatter of iron slag lying amongst the stones (Stewart 1962). The position of the entrance was not recorded on the RCAHMS plan, but the OS suggested that it lay above the burn on the E.
Citizen Science:  ✗
Reliability of Data:  Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation:  Confirmed
X:  -430660  Y:  7682068  (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude:  -3.8686856787708535  Latitude:  56.61616966518797  (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   | ✗ |
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:  120.0m
N/A
In the absence of modern 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:   | Planted with trees and built over |
None
1st Identified Map Depiction (1862):   | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Perth and Clackmannan 1867, sheet 49.10) |
Earthwork Survey (1888):   | Plan and description by Alexander Hutcheson (1889, 363-4,fig 6) |
Other (1899):   | Description by David Christison (1900, 50-2) |
Other (1942):   | Description by Angus Graham and Gordon Childe for the RCAHMS wartime Emergency Surveys |
Earthwork Survey (1957):   | Plan and description for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (RCAHMS DC5400 DP157786) |
Excavation (1962):   | By Margaret Stewart on behalf of the Ministry of Public Works (Stewart 1962) |
Other (1975):   | Resurveyed by the OS at 1:2500 |
Featureless and largely occupied byy a modern house
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   | ✗ |
Pieces of iron slag
No Known Finds   | ✗ |
Pottery   | ✗ |
Metal   | ✗ |
Metalworking   | ✓ |
Human Bones   | ✗ |
Animal Bones   | ✗ |
Lithics   | ✗ |
Environmental   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
Obscured by house and trees
APs Not Checked   | ✗ |
None   | ✓ |
Roundhouses   | ✗ |
Rectangular Structures   | ✗ |
Pits   | ✗ |
Postholes   | ✗ |
Roads/Tracks   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
See main summary
1:   | None |
2:   | Suggested by the OS |
Guard Chambers:  ✗
Chevaux de Frise:  ✗
1. Simple Gap (East):   | None |
Up to three ramparts
Area 1:   | 0.18ha. |
Total:   | 0.18ha. |
Total Footprint Area:  Noneha.
None
✗   | None |
✓   | None |
NE Quadrant:   | 1 |
SE Quadrant:   | 3 |
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:  None
✗   | 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
Stewart, M E C (1962) Torr Hill Aberfeldy. Disc Exc Scot (1962), 57-8
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