Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Highland HER MHG9856 (None)
NMR: NC 91 NE 27 (7000)
SM: 1870
NGR: NC 9943 1891
X: 299430 Y: 918910 (OSGB36)
The Kilphedir broch is situated in a commanding position overlooking the Strath of Kildonan, occupying the crest of a hillock high up on the northern flank. Around the foot of the hillock, however, there is also a substantial earthwork comprising a ditch up to 6m in breadth, with a counterscarp rampart standing up to 2.5m above its bottom. In places, particularly around the eastern half of the circuit, there are also traces of a bank on the inner lip of the ditch, but this detaches itself from this line on the SE and appears to be forming a smaller enclosure on the crest of the hillock. A gap in the ditch on the NW marks the position of the entrance, and is flanked on the E by a short length of an outer ditch with a counterscarp bank. The area enclosed measures about 60m from NNW to SSE by up to 32m transversely (0.16ha), though aerial photographs suggest that there may also be a rather smaller enclosure occupying the crest of the hillock. The interior around the broch is otherwise featureless. The broch itself, which is largely choked with rubble, measures about 10m in diameter within a wall about 4.3m in thickness, its features including a gallery on the S and a checked entrance passage on the NW.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -413021 Y: 7998410 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.710226527778528 Latitude: 58.14770628891217 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Highland
Historic County: Sutherland
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Kildonan
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: 105.0m
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: | Possibly occupied by the broch |
John Stuart also visited in 1866 as part of his report to Council for the Rhind Bequest (1868, 8). Both RCAHMS and Highland HER hold extensive photographic records of the broch, and RCAHMS aerial photographs taken in 1991 and 2009, and others taken by Ian Ralston in 1979.
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1864): | Sketch and note by Rev James Joass (1864, 246, pl xv fig 7) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1871): | Annotated 'Pictish Tower' on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Sutherland 1879, sheet 79) |
| Other (1909): | Description and plan of broch (RCAHMS 1911, 104-5, no.307, fig 35) |
| Other (1938): | Scheduled |
| Other (1960): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1963): | Description by Euan MacKie (2007, 651-2) |
| Earthwork Survey (1976): | Visited by the OS and planned at 1:1250 by Keith Blood |
Traces of a smaller enclosure on the crest of the hillock around the broch, but otherwise featureless.
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Enclosure bank and 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 | ✗ |
Enclosure bank and broch
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
See main summary
| 1: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North west): | None |
A broad ditch with an external bank, and an outer ditch and counterscarp bank on the NNW
| Area 1: | 0.16ha. |
| Total: | 0.16ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.33ha.
None
| ✓ | The inner enclosure on the crest of the hillock summit probably represents a separate construction, but the sequence is uncertain. |
| ✓ | This excludes the broch wall and the traces of the inner enclosure on the crest of the hillock. |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| NW Quadrant: | 1 |
| Total: | 1 |
| 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 |
| ✓ | one forming a complete circuit, with an outer on one side. |
Number of Ditches: 2
| ✗ | None |
Joass, J M (1864) 'Two days' diggings in Sutherlandshire'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 5 (1862-4), 242-7
MacKie, E W (2007) The Roundhouses, Brochs and Wheelhouses of Atlantic Scotland c.700 BC-AD 500: architecture and material culture, the Northern and Southern Mainland and the Western Islands, BAR British series 444(II), 444(1), 2 V. BAR: Oxford
RCAHMS (1911) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Second report and inventory of monuments and constructions in the county of Sutherland. HMSO: Edinburgh
Stuart, J (1868) Report to the Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, appointed to arrange for the Application of a Fund left by the late Mr A Henry Rhind, for Excavating Early Remains. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 7 (1866-8), 289-307
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