Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Highland HER MHG608 (None)
NMR: ND 36 SE 5 (72044)
SM: None
NGR: ND 3729 6375
X: 337290 Y: 963750 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on a precipitous promontory below Nybster, about 600m further north from the Nybster broch. The promontory describes a V on plan, the W arm of which forms the neck on the landward side, and the E arm projects ENE out into the sea. The defences comprises a single thick wall, now reduced to a broad but heavily disturbed bank, which bars access along the W arm from the NNE, cutting off an area of about 0.15ha, measuring 50m from NNE to SSW and 70m from ENE to WSW along the respective arms. The disturbance visible today is largely the result of collapse of masonry exposed by the excavations by Sir Francis Tress Barry about 1897 and has taken place since it was visited by Alexander Curle during the preparation of the County Inventory for Caithness (RCAHMS 1911, 18, no.45). Curle records that the wall was 3.8m in thickness and still stood 1.2m high, and contemporary photographs show the neatly coursed faces at the entrance, which lies a little E of the centre and was furnished with a raised sill at a door-check in the passage, and a bar-hole in the wall; he also describes an oval chamber measuring about 3m by 2.1m on the E of the passage, but whether this was constructed within the thickness of the wall or to its rear is not entirely clear from his description. More definitely a drain ran out beneath the paved floor of the entrance passage, and a slab-built hearth was discovered with pottery to the rear of the entrance.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -342799 Y: 8085325 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.0794153356000806 Latitude: 58.5573652580177 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Highland
Historic County: Caithness
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Canisbay
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: 15.0m
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: | The description of the hearth suggests it may have post-dated the fort |
RCAHMS hold a range of photographs, including several from the original excavations.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1873): | Annotated 'Tumulus' on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Caithness 1877, sheet 14) |
| Excavation (1897): | By Sir Francis Tress Barry (Photo in RCAHMS collection dated 1897) |
| Other (1910): | Description (RCAHMS 1911, 18, no.45) |
| Other (1965): | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1971): | Plan and description by Raymond Lamb (1980, 23, fig 8, 75; RCAHMS CAD 86/1) |
| Other (1982): | Caithness Coastal Survey (Batey 1982, 65; archive held in RCAHMS) |
| Other (1982): | Visited by the OS |
Excavation spoil and disturbance around the wall but otherwise featureless
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 | ✗ |
Oval chamber, possibly freestanding, and a hearth
| 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 | ✗ |
NO APPARENT FEATURES
| 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. Other Forms (North): | Door-checks and bar-hole |
Single wall across a promontory
| Area 1: | 0.15ha. |
| Total: | 0.15ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 0 |
| 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 |
| ✗ | None |
Number of Ditches: None
| ✗ | None |
Batey, C E (1982) Caithness coastal survey 1982: interim reports 1980-2, typescript Durham University.
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London (p 180)
Lamb, R G (1980) Iron Age promontory forts in the Northern Isles. Brit Archaeol Rep, British Ser 79. BAR: Oxford
RCAHMS (1911) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Third report and inventory of monuments and constructions in the county of Caithness. HMSO, London
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