Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Shetland Amenity Trust 1740 (None)
NMR: HZ 27 SW 6 (3915)
SM: 2082
NGR: HZ 2229 7225
X: 422300 Y: 1072270 (OSGB36)
The precipitous promontory forming the W side of South Haven is occupied by a small fortification comprising up to three ramparts and ditches drawn across its narrow neck on the NNE. The outer ramparts stand about 1.2m above the bottoms of the external ditches, while the innermost, set above a natural cleft that has been adapted for a ditch, is a more substantial wall. The interior thus forms a narrow raised plateau extending to the rear of this wall and measures about 50m in length from NNE to SSW, and as a result of heavy erosion along its flanks no more than 12m in breadth (0.05ha). The entrance is threaded along an undug causeway on the NNE, but while three ditches are visible on the E, the stubs of only two can be seen on the W. The only feature visible within the interior is a rectangular building, which proved on excavation in 1996-7 (Hunter 1996; 1997) to be the remains of a chapel. Evidence of earlier occupation was also uncovered, in which a curved wall-line and possible floor surfaces were cut by a sub-circular pit 4m across and 1.5m deep, and superseded by a round-house 4m in internal diameter. A hearth built into the demolished round-house was associated with moulds for copper-alloy artefacts.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -178939 Y: 8297122 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -1.6074394450141807 Latitude: 59.535873797188245 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Shetland Islands
Historic County: Shetland
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Dunrossness
progressive coastal erosion
| 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: 20.0m
N/A
No chronology yet published, but the pottery from the round-house is comparable to that from brochs
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✓ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✓ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✓ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | None |
| Artefactual: | None |
RCAHMS holds a number of photographs, including aerial views taken by the RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 2012
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1878): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Shetland 1881, sheet 69) |
| Other (1930): | Description (RCAHMS 1946, iii, 46, no.1194) |
| Other (1961): | Sherds and flint flake found (Proc Soc Antiq Scot 92, 1958-9, 120, no.19) |
| Other (1967): | Norse sherd found (Proc Soc Antiq Scot 99, 1966-7, 266, no.29) |
| Other (1968): | Visited by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1970): | Plan and description by Raymond Lamb; sherds found (Lamb 1980, 44 fig 14, 80-1; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 105, 1972-4, 319, no.14; RCAHMS SHD 104/1-2) |
| Earthwork Survey (1988): | Plan and description between 1984-8 (Hunter 1996a, 89-92, fig 7.2) |
| Excavation (1993): | Scheduled |
| Excavation (1996): | Directed by John Hunter (1996b) |
| Excavation (1997): | Directed by John Hunter (1997) |
Round-houses, hearths and a chapel
Possible the large cut pit is a cistern, but the excavator has yet to advance an interpretation in print.
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Chapel
| No Known Features | ✗ |
| Round Stone Structures | ✗ |
| Rectangular Stone Structures | ✓ |
| Curvilinear Platforms | ✗ |
| Other Roundhouse Evidence | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Round-houses, chapel, hearths, and large pit
| 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. Simple Gap (North): | Staggered ditch terminals to either side of the causeway |
Up to three ramparts and ditches cutting off a promontory
| Area 1: | 0.05ha. |
| Total: | 0.05ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.14ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 0 |
| 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: 3
| ✗ | None |
Hunter, J R (1996) Fair Isle: The Archaeology of an Island Community. National Trust for Scotland. HMSO: Edinburgh
Hunter, J R (1996b) 'The Landberg, Fair Isle (Dunrossness parish), Iron Age promontory fort, medieval building'. Disc Exc Scot (1996), 94
Hunter, J R (1997) 'The Landberg, Fair Isle (Dunrossness parish), Iron Age promontory fort', Disc Exc Scot (1997), 68-69
Lamb, R G (1980) Iron Age promontory forts in the Northern Isles. Brit Archaeol Rep, British Ser 79. BAR: Oxford
RCAHMS (1946) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Twelfth report with an inventory of the ancient monuments of Orkney and Shetland, 3v. 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