Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Highland HER MHG6488 (None)
NMR: NG 45 SW 3 (11332)
SM: 910
NGR: NG 4108 5185
X: 141080 Y: 851850 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on an elongated hillock at the NNW end of the Skerinish peninsula. The ground falls away steeply all along the WSW flank, ultimately down to the loch shore, while on the ENE the hillock is separated from the rising ground to the E by a deep natural hollow. The visible remains comprise two principal elements: what is probably a heavily-robbed broch; and an earlier fort. The broch occupies the southern end of the interior of the fort, which measures about 95m from NNW to SSE by a maximum of 25m transversely (0.19ha), and is divided in half by a later transverse wall roughly midway along its length. The innermost defences of the fort comprise an inner wall, now reduced to little more than a band of rubble with occasional outer facing-stones, which can be traced along the margins of the summit and measures about 3m in thickness; this is best preserved around the NNW half, but it probably extended around the edge of the precipitous SSE end, where it is overlain by the ruins of the broch. On the ENE flank below the inner wall there are possible traces of an outer wall, but at its S end this seems to have been cut out by the internal ditch of a major outer defence set at the foot of the slope to encompass the whole of the E half of the circuit. The ditch increases in breadth southwards from 4m to a maximum of 9m where it terminates adjacent to an entrance on the lip of the slope dropping away to the W; it is accompanied by an upcast rampart on its counterscarp. The route from this entrance to the summit probably followed a terrace at the foot of the cliffs on the SW; access to this terrace, however, is partly blocked by a line of boulders opposite the terminal of the ditch. In 1921 RCAHMS investigators depicted eight structures within the interior, but the OS felt unable to identify any of them as the remains of a hut-circle. The defences evidently represent several phases of construction, the latest element probably being the transverse wall across the interior, though whether this was contemporary with the occupation of the broch, as suggested by the OS, or is part of the later pattern of field-banks in the vicinity, is unknown.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -703718 Y: 7859442 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -6.321602217951602 Latitude: 57.48277950820007 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Highland
Historic County: Inverness-shire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Snizort
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: 60.0m
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: | Overlain by broch |
None
| Earthwork Survey (1921): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1928, 197-8, no.621, fig 283; RCAHMS IND 29/1-2) |
| Excavation (1922): | No published report (RCAHMS MS453/38) |
| Other (1936): | Scheduled |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1968): | OS 1:10,560 |
| Other (1971): | Description; visited by the OS |
| Other (1984): | Description and sketch-plan (MacSween 1984, 49, fig 51) |
Eight structures depicted as hut-circles by RCAHMS, but though traces are visible the OS could not confirm that they were the remains of hut-circles. Otherwise overlain by the broch
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Overlain by broch
| 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 | ✗ |
Traces of some of the features depicted by RCAHMS
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
See main summary
| 1: | heavily robbed inner circuit |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (South): | in outermost rampart to approach inner entrance on the western flank |
at least one wall, but with an outer ditch and bank
| Area 1: | 0.19ha. |
| Total: | 0.19ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.77ha.
None
| ✓ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| 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 |
| ✓ | None |
Number of Ditches: 1
| ✗ | None |
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London (p 156)
MacSween, A (1985) The Broch, Duns and Enclosures of Skye. Northern Archaeology 5-6 (1984-85), 1-57
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