Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Highland HER MHG3956 (None)
NMR: NH 63 SW 49 (13283)
SM: 11817
NGR: NH 6005 3165
X: 260050 Y: 831650 (OSGB36)
This small fortification stands on a precipitous boss in open moorland on Ashie Moor. Comprising two eccentric enclosures, the inner on the summit is roughly circular on plan, measuring about 30m in diameter (0.07ha) within a thick wall that has largely collapsed over the edge of the cliff forming the ESE flank of the boss. Elsewhere it is reduced to a mound of rubble up to 3.8m thick, in which the line of the outer face is visible, in places standing 0.6m in height. This inner enclosure, however, lies eccentrically within an outer defence that is best preserved where it crosses the spine of the boss on the SSW, but can also be traced along the crest of the rocky NW flank to return to the cliff-edge on the other side on the NNE, thus enclosing an area measuring about 80m from NNE to SSW by 33m transversely (0.25ha); on the SW this wall is of a similar scale to the inner, again with its outer face visible amongst the rubble. The entrances through both walls lie on the SSW. Traces of a third wall were noted by Alan Ayre of the OS in 1974 after heather burning, following the leading edge of a terrace some 7m further down the slope on the SW, below which on the NW a ditch with an external bank has been cut into the foot of the slope along NW flank of the boss. The only features visible within the interior are a relatively modern shelter built into the innermost wall and a possible well, shown on the plan drawn up by Ayre within the summit enclosure, but in 1943 identified by Angus Graham between the inner and outer walls on the NNE. The relationship between the inner and outer enclosures is unknown.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -481766 Y: 7832789 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -4.3277763513549266 Latitude: 57.35385108316773 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Highland
Historic County: Inverness-shire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Dores
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: 265.0m
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: | Shelter built into the inner wall |
Highland HER also holds an extensive photographic collection.
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1857): | Noted and sketch-plan by George Anderson, possibly in the 1820s (Anderson 1857, 199) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1871): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Inverness-shire 1881, sheet 30.3) |
| Other (1875): | Description By W Jolly (1880) |
| Earthwork Survey (1918): | Description and sketch-plan (Wallace 1918, 125, 130) |
| Earthwork Survey (1943): | Sketch-plan and description by Angus Graham and Gordon Childe for the RCAHMS wartime Emergency Surveys (RCAHMS SC1453989) |
| Other (1957): | Description for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (Feachem 1963, 126) |
| Other (1970): | Surveyed at 1:10,000 by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1974): | Plan at 1:1250 by Alan Ayre of the OS |
| Other (1992): | Description by RCAHMS |
| Other (2009): | Scheduled |
Featureless apart from the shelter built into the wall
While Angus Graham identifies a possible well between the walls on the NNE, Alan Ayre of the OS places it in the centre of the summit enclosure
| None | ✗ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✓ |
| Other | ✗ |
Later shelter built into the wall
| 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 | ✗ |
NO APPARENT FEATURES
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✓ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 1: | Incomplete circuit |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (South west): | In both inner and outer walls |
Up to three walls and a ditch on one side, but possible representing at least two phases of enclosure
| Area 1: | 0.07ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.25ha. |
| Total: | 0.25ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.45ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | The complete innermost enclosure is excluded below circuit was probably complete |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| 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 |
| ✓ | Along the foot of the boss on the NW |
Number of Ditches: 1
| ✗ | None |
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London
Jolly W (1880) 'Excursions to Strathnairn'. Trans Inverness Sci Soc Fld Club 1 (1875-80), 27-36
Wallace, T (1918) 'Notes on the parish of Petty'. Trans Inverness Sci Soc Fld Club 8 (1912-18), 87-136
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