SC2876: Dun Mor | (Tighnaleac) |
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HER: Highland HER MHG2651
NMR: NH 44 NE 8 (12378)
SM: 4979
NGR: NH 4574 4515
X: 245740 Y: 845150 (EPSG:27700)
Boundary: ✗
Dun Mor is a massively constructed dun situated on the lip of a crag that falls away precipitously on the N and NW to the Breakachy Burn, but it also stands within a larger walled enclosure backing onto the cliff-edge. The dun itself measures about 24m from NNE to SSW by 16m transversely within a massive wall between 4.5m and 5.9m in thickness, in which both faces can be traced round the circuit, in places standing up to four courses high; its entrance is on the SE. The inner of the two outer walls follows an eccentric course around the southern and eastern flanks of the dun some 10m outside its wall to enclose an area measuring about 47m from NNE to SSW by 40m transversely (1.17ha); though reduced to its foundations, it measures about 3m in thickness and is also pierced by an entrance on the SE. The outer is even more heavily dilapidated, following the shoulder of the hillock. The relationship between these outer defences and the dun are unknown.
| Citizen Science: | ✗ |
| Reliability of Data: | Confirmed |
| Reliability of Interpretation: | Confirmed: | Conventionally a dun and its outworks falling well below the 0.2ha threshold, it nevertheless is included as a small fort |
X: -509159 Y: 7856874 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -4.573856 Latitude: 57.470377 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Highland
Historic County: Inverness-shire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Kilmorack
| Extant: | ✓ |
| Cropmark: | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed: | ✗ |
| Woodland: | ✗ |
| Commercial Forestry Plantation: | ✗ |
| Parkland: | ✗ |
| Pasture (Grazing): | ✓ |
| Arable: | ✗ |
| Scrub/Bracken: | ✗ |
| Bare Outcrop: | ✗ |
| Heather/Moorland: | ✓ |
| Heath: | ✗ |
| Built-up: | ✗ |
| Coastal Grassland: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| 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: ✗
| North: | ✗ |
| Northeast: | ✗ |
| East: | ✗ |
| Southeast: | ✗ |
| South: | ✗ |
| Southwest: | ✗ |
| West: | ✗ |
| Northwest: | ✗ |
| Level: | ✓ |
Altitude: 200.0m
| Boundary Type: | ✗ |
Second HER: ✗
Second Current County or Unitary Authority: ✗
Second Historic County: ✗
Second Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: ✗
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: | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC: | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50: | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400: | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800: | ✗ |
| Post AD800: | ✗ |
| Unknown: | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort Activity: | ✗ |
| Post Hillfort Activity: | ✗ |
| None: | No details. |
Highland HER holds several photographs, including some taken in 2014, while it was photographed by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 2007
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1875): | Named in Gothic type on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Inverness-shire 1880, sheet 10.1) |
| Other (1886): | Description (Wallace 1886, 343) |
| Other (1943): | Description by Angus Graham and Gordon Childe for RCAHMS wartime Emergency Surveys |
| Other (1957): | Description for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (Feachem 1963, 128) |
| Other (1970): | Surveyed at 1:10,000 by the OS |
| Other (1979): | Description by RCAHMS |
| Other (1981): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1991): | Scheduled |
Featureless apart from the dun
| None: | ✓ |
| Spring: | ✗ |
| Stream: | ✗ |
| Pool: | ✗ |
| Flush: | ✗ |
| Well: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
The dun
| No Known Features: | ✗ |
| Round Stone Structures: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Stone Structures: | ✗ |
| Curvilinear Platforms: | ✗ |
| Other Roundhouse Evidence: | ✗ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✓ |
| No Known Excavation: | ✓ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Postholes: | ✗ |
| Roundhouses: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures: | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| Nothing Found: | ✗ |
| No Known Geophysics: | ✓ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Roundhouses: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures: | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| Nothing Found: | ✗ |
| No Known Finds: | ✓ |
| Pottery: | ✗ |
| Metal: | ✗ |
| Metalworking: | ✗ |
| Human Bones: | ✗ |
| Animal Bones: | ✗ |
| Lithics: | ✗ |
| Environmental: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
The dun
| APs Not Checked: | ✗ |
| None: | ✗ |
| Roundhouses: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures: | ✗ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Postholes: | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✓ |
See main summary
| Total Number of Breaks Through Ramparts: | 1 |
| Number of Possible Original Entrances: |
Guard Chambers: ✗
| Chevaux de Frise: | ✗ |
| Entrance 1 (Southeast): | Simple Gap |
Dun on the summit and two outer walls lower down the slope cutting off the cliff-edge
| Enclosed Area 1: | 0.17ha. |
| Enclosed Area 2: | ✗ |
| Enclosed Area 3: | ✗ |
| Enclosed Area 4: | ✗ |
| Total Enclosed Area: | 0.2ha. |
Total Footprint Area: ✗
| Multi-period Enclosure System: | ✗ | Excludes the dun |
| Ramparts Form a Continuous Circuit: | ✓ | Excludes the dun |
| Number of Ramparts: | 2 |
| Number of Ramparts NE Quadrant: | ✗ |
| Number of Ramparts SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| Number of Ramparts SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| Number of Ramparts NW Quadrant: | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate: | ✗ |
| Univallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate: | ✓ |
| Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Unknown: | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate: | ✗ |
| Univallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Multivallate: | ✗ |
| None: | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank: | ✗ |
| Stone Wall: | ✓ |
| Rubble: | ✗ |
| Wall-walk: | ✗ |
| Evidence of Timber: | ✗ |
| Vitrification: | ✗ |
| Other Burning: | ✗ |
| Palisade: | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank: | ✗ |
| Berm: | ✗ |
| Unfinished: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| None: | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank: | ✗ |
| Stone Wall: | ✗ |
| Murus Duplex: | ✗ |
| Timber-framed: | ✗ |
| Timber-laced: | ✗ |
| Vitrification: | ✗ |
| Other Burning: | ✗ |
| Palisade: | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank: | ✗ |
| Berm: | ✗ |
| Unfinished: | ✗ |
| No Known Excavation: | ✓ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| Gang Working: | ✗ |
Ditches: ✗
| Number of Ditches: |
| Annex: | ✗ |
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London
Wallace, T (1886) 'Notes on ancient remains in the Beauly Valley, Inverness-shire'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 20 (1985-6), 340-55
Atlas of Hillforts: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk/?query=Atlas_of_Hillforts_4166_0%2CMain_Atlas_Number%2C2876
Wikidata: http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q31101711
The online version of the Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland should be cited as:
Lock, G. and Ralston, I. 2017. Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland. [ONLINE] Available at: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.