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HER:  Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust MPK1270 (None)
NMR:  NN 90 NW 1 (25903)
SM:  7593
NGR:  NN 9238 1005
X:  292388  Y:  710054  (OSGB36)
This fort occupies a low hillock within the W angle of the motorway interchange with the A823 public road to Gleneagles. The defences comprise three ramparts with intermediate ditches, which have probably encircled the whole hillock, though the outer ramparts have been levelled by cultivation on the SW flank, and the inner has been reduced to little more than a scarp. The oval interior measures about 70m from NW to SE by 35m transversely (0.19ha); in 1967 the OS noted traces of a ring-ditch house some 16.5m in diameter in the SE half, and there is probably a second immediately within the line of the rampart on the SSE. They also suggested that the entrance on the SE is blocked by the outer rampart, and that there were possibly traces of a second entrance on the W.
Citizen Science:  ✗
Reliability of Data:  Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation:  Confirmed
X:  -416254  Y:  7612510  (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude:  -3.7392759123647745  Latitude:  56.27078003706803  (EPSG:4326)
Country:  Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority:  Perth & Kinross
Historic County:  Perthshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland:  Blackford
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:  155.0m
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:   | Planted with trees |
None
1st Identified Map Depiction (1783):   | Annotated Camp on James Stobie's map of The Counties of Perth and Clackmannan (1783) |
Other (1792):   | Noted (Stat Acct 3, 1792, 210) |
Other (1860):   | Annotated Roman Camp in Roman type on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Perth and Clackmannan 1866, sheet 118.9) |
Earthwork Survey (1899):   | Sketch-plan and description by David Christison (1900, 54-6, fig 16) |
Other (1956):   | Noted during RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands |
Other (1967):   | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
Other (2000):   | Scheduled |
Other (2015):   | Visited by S Halliday |
Possible ring-ditch houses
None
None   | ✓ |
Spring   | ✗ |
Stream   | ✗ |
Pool   | ✗ |
Flush   | ✗ |
Well   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
Ring-ditch houses
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   | ✗ |
Obscured by trees
APs Not Checked   | ✗ |
None   | ✓ |
Roundhouses   | ✗ |
Rectangular Structures   | ✗ |
Pits   | ✗ |
Postholes   | ✗ |
Roads/Tracks   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
See main summary
1:   | None |
2:   | Only one certain break |
Guard Chambers:  ✗
Chevaux de Frise:  ✗
1. Simple Gap (South east):   | None |
Triple ramparts with intermediate ditches
Area 1:   | 0.19ha. |
Total:   | 0.19ha. |
Total Footprint Area:  Noneha.
None
✗   | None |
✓   | There were probably three on the SW but this sector is heavily degraded. |
NE Quadrant:   | 3 |
SE Quadrant:   | 3 |
SW Quadrant:   | 2 |
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:  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
Stat Acct (date) Statistical Account of Scotland: Drawn up from the Communications of the Ministers of the Different Parishes (Sinclair, J ed), 1791-99
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