HER:  Highland HER MHG6662 (None)
NMR:  NG 33 NW 4 (11063)
SM:  918
NGR:  NG 3399 3905
X:  133990  Y:  839050  (OSGB36)
This small fort is situated on a rocky hillock girt with crags some 15m high on all sides except the NE. Here the remains of two walls can be seen, the inner of which has been carried round the whole circuit. Relatively massive on the NE, where it forms a band of debris up to 8m thick and rises about 1.2m above the level of the interior, the inner wall reduces to a thickness of perhaps no more than 2.4m elsewhere around the circuit, enclosing a roughly oval area measuring 53m from NNW to SSE by 42m transversely (0.18ha). There are entrances on the NNE and SE respectively, the passage of the former measuring 1.9m in width by 4m in length; the latter is rather narrower, but is accessed by a path climbing obliquely up the slope. While the SE entrance passes directly to the exterior, the NNE entrance presumably led out through the outwork, though no trace of an outer entrance was identified when the fort was surveyed in 1921. Extending along a terrace some 3m or 4m below the main wall, the outer wall on this side measures up to 2.4m in thickness and at its SE end turns W as if it had originally sprung from the inner. A large hut-circle some 10m in internal diameter lies on the E side of the interior, now forming a boggy hollow enclosed by a low wall. Other structures may have been inserted into the debris of the outer wall on the E.
Citizen Science:  ✗
Reliability of Data:  Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation:  Confirmed
X:  -715296  Y:  7834893  (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude:  -6.425616823278004  Latitude:  57.36404196083813  (EPSG:4326)
Country:  Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority:  Highland
Historic County:  Inverness-shire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland:  Bracadale
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:  125.0m
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:   | Possible later structures inserted into the debris of the outer wall on the E |
None
1st Identified Map Depiction (1877):   | Named in Gothic type on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Inverness-shire, Skye, 1881, sheet 28.15) |
Earthwork Survey (1921):   | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1928, 146-7, no.489, fig 208; RCAHMS IND41/1-2) |
Other (1961):   | Visited by the OS |
Other (1963):   | Scheduled |
Other (1971):   | Visited by the OS |
Other (1971):   | Second visit by the OS |
Single hut-cirdle about 10m in internal diameter
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   | ✗ |
None
No Known Finds   | ✓ |
Pottery   | ✗ |
Metal   | ✗ |
Metalworking   | ✗ |
Human Bones   | ✗ |
Animal Bones   | ✗ |
Lithics   | ✗ |
Environmental   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
None
APs Not Checked   | ✗ |
None   | ✗ |
Roundhouses   | ✓ |
Rectangular Structures   | ✗ |
Pits   | ✗ |
Postholes   | ✗ |
Roads/Tracks   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
See main summary
2:   | None |
2:   | None |
Guard Chambers:  ✗
Chevaux de Frise:  ✗
1. Simple Gap (North):   | None |
2. Simple Gap (South east):   | None |
One wall forming a complete circuit, with an outwork on one side
Area 1:   | 0.18ha. |
Total:   | 0.18ha. |
Total Footprint Area:  0.33ha.
None
✗   | None |
✓   | None |
NE Quadrant:   | 2 |
SE Quadrant:   | 1 |
SW Quadrant:   | 1 |
NW Quadrant:   | 1 |
Total:   | 2 |
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 |
RCAHMS (1928) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Ninth report with inventory of monuments and constructions in the Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles. HMSO: 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