LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Highland HER MHG3809 (None)
NMR: NH 64 NW 6 (13486)
SM: 2892
NGR: NH 6400 4527
X: 264000 Y: 845270 (OSGB36)
Craig Phadrig, the steep and wooded hill that rises abruptly on the western outskirts of inverness is crowned by a spectacular fort. Its defences comprise two walls, the inner of which is a massive vitrified structure reduced to a bank about 12m thick and 1.4m high internally taking in a subrectangular area on the elongated summit of the hill measuring some 72m from NE to SW by 22m transversely (0.18ha). The outer wall appears to be of slighter proportions around most of the circuit and appears to be accompanied by an internal quarry in some sectors, following a roughly concentric line around the NE, NW and SW, only to diverge along the SE flank to an angle on the E; an external ditch and an outer rampart on the NE follow this same course, the rampart terminating at its S end above what is almost certainly the site of an entrance, though the inner end of the passage is blocked by the collapsed outer wall. In common with other subrectangular forts with heavily vitrified walls, there is no evidence of an entrance into the inner enclosure on the summit; a feature variously described as an entrance (Headland 2011) and a barrow-run (RCAHMS 2014, 8) almost certainly overlies the defences and probably facilitated later access into the interior. Traces of the excavation trenches dug in 1971 can be seen within the interior, where Alan Small identified two main phases of occupation, apparently separated by a long period of abandonment; the later occupation was evidently early medieval, finds from a floor including sherds of E Ware and a fragment of a mould for a hanging bowl escutcheon (Small and Cottam 1972). There are seven radiocarbon dates from various samples of timber from beneath and within the walls, and the interior, but the brackets of their probabilities are so wide as to be of little use in dating the defences. Following the second season of excavation in 1972, Alan Small claimed that the inner wall had been reconstructed following its catastrophic destruction and vitrification (1972), though whether this refortification related to the early medieval occupation is unclear. He also cryptically describes on the NE 'a double rampart, the impression of a third being created by the ditch from which the material for the outer rampart had been upcast' (1972). Apparently he dismissed the outermost rampart that the most recent surveys by Headland Archaeology and RCAHMS have identified in this sector, but there must be some doubt in the light of these surveys and the identification of a blocked entrance on the E whether the ditch was an external accompaniment to the outer of the walls here, which had also been burnt, or was an internal quarry for a robbed rampart on its outer lip. Given the traces of internal quarrying elsewhere around the outer circuit, the latter is perhaps the more likely, in its turn indicating that the outer vitrified wall on this side is a secondary construction that not only blocks the entrance on the E but crosses the internal quarry at this point. As the RCAHMS investigators suggest (RCAHMS 2014), the outer circuit is perhaps the remains of the earliest fortification here, forming a polygonal enclosure measuring about 120m from NE to SW by a maximum of 60m transversely (0.6ha) within a rampart with an internal quarry and an entrance on the E. This rampart was robbed in antiquity to build the rectangular enclosure on the summit, explaining why Small failed to find any trace of it on the NW (1972). The inner enclosure was subsequently burnt and later reconstructed, though the chronology of these events is unknown. The outer vitrified wall on the NE, now appearing as the middle line of defence, appears to be an outwork to the inner enclosure, and given that it does not follow the line of the earlier rampart, we can guess that it was not conceived in the initial construction of the inner enclosure but is a later addition long after the rampart of the earlier fort had been robbed. In 2015, remedial work following the removal of a wind-blown tree, revealed a phase of refurbishment in the medieval period, with a substantial timber palisade set along the crest of the inner ruined wall, which at this point proved to be 6.5m thick (Peteranna and Birch 2015); radiocarbon dates from this work have yet to be published.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -475305 Y: 7858306 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -4.2697352594135385 Latitude: 57.477297622108004 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Highland
Historic County: Inverness-shire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Inverness And Bona
None
| Extant | ✓ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✗ |
Clearing in coniferous plantation with public access
| 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: 170.0m
N/A
The brackets are sufficiently wide on the old radiocarbon dates from samples from within and below the defences to indicate merely that the fort probably dates from the pre-Roman Iron Age; two substantive phases of occupation were identified in the interior, the later dating from the early medieval period. The new dates, while not yet published, show that rubble from the inner wall had collapsed across material dating from circa 400-250 BC, while a phase of refurbishment of the inner perimeter dated to the 11th-12th centuries AD
Reliability: C - Low
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✓ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✓ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✓ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | Early medieval re-occupation, but uncertain whether the defences may have been refurbished |
| Artefactual: | A bronze pin from the earlier occupation phase; sherds of E ware, a mould for the escutcheon of an early medieval hanging bowl from the upper. |
| C14: | Seven 'old dates' with very wide probabilities; new work provides another six dates but these have yet to be published |
Highland HER holds an archive of photographs, while the RCAHMS collection not only includes aerial views taken on various occasions, but also the archive from the excavations in 1971-2 (RCAHMS 2014).
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1777): | Description published by John Williams (1777, 31-5) |
| Earthwork Survey (1777): | Sketch-plan by James Watt (Williams 1777; RCAHMS SC1376598) |
| Excavation (1777): | Thomas West digs in the rampart and collects specimens of burnt stones (West 1777, 387) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1789): | Annotated 'Vetrified Fort' (Ainslie et al 1789) |
| Earthwork Survey (1790): | Plan and description by Alexander Fraser Tytler (Lord Woodhouse) (1790, fig 5; RCAHMS 2014 fig 5) |
| Earthwork Survey (1809): | Plan by Thomas Telford and Alexander Nimmo (RCAHMS SC1367518) |
| Excavation (1809): | Ten trial pits dug by Thomas Telford and annotated on his plan (RCAHMS 2014, 9, fig 8; SC1367518) |
| Excavation (1826): | Sir George Steuart Mackenzie (Hibbert 1857, 188) |
| Excavation (1847): | Digging (Pryer 1847) |
| Other (1868): | Annotated Vitrified Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Inverness-shire 1881, sheet 11.4) |
| Other (1870): | Notes (Gowans 1870) |
| Earthwork Survey (1880): | Plan by Thomas Aitken (1880, 348) |
| Earthwork Survey (1913): | Derived sketch-plan reproducing earlier detail and description (Wallace 1918, 91-3) |
| Earthwork Survey (1943): | Sketch-plan and description by Angus Graham and Gordon Childe for the RCAHMS wartime Emergency Surveys (RCAHMS 2014, 13, fig 11; SC1453995) |
| Other (1957): | Description for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (Feachem 1963, 126) |
| Other (1962): | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1969): | Scheduled |
| Other (1969): | Visit and description by the OS |
| Excavation (1971): | Directed by Alan Small (Small 1971; Small and Cottam 1972) |
| Earthwork Survey (1972): | Depicting the excavation trenches (Small and Cottam 1972, fig 2) |
| Excavation (1972): | Directed by Alan Small (Small 1972) |
| Earthwork Survey (2011): | Plan and description by Headland Archaeology Ltd on behalf of the Forestry Commission (Headland 2011, fig 17) |
| Earthwork Survey (2013): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 2014, 1-2 fig 2, 19-21; RCAHMS GV005343 & SC1386712) |
| Excavation (2015): | Evaluation following tree throw (Peteranna and Birch 2015) |
Featureless on the surface, but evidently containing the remains of buried structures; a well was identified by Williams at the NE end of the interior (1777)
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 | ✗ |
Structures of uncertain size and shape
| 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
| 2: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North east): | In inner wall and variously interpreted as an entrance (Headland 2011) or a later excavation feature (RCAHMS 2014, 8) |
| 2. Blocked (East): | The RCAHMS and Headland plans both show, but don't appear to comment upon, a probable blocked entrance at the angle in the line of the outer rampart on the E. |
| 2. Simple Gap (East): | None |
Two complete circuits and an outer rampart on the NE
| Area 1: | 0.18ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.6ha. |
| Total: | 0.6ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.8ha.
None
| ✓ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 2 |
| 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 |
| ✗ | A ditch is noted at least on the NE, but see main summary text |
Number of Ditches: 1
| ✗ | None |
Ainslie, J, Ainslie, J & Faden, W (1789) Scotland, drawn from a series of angles and astronomical observations. National Library of Scotland: Shelfmark Newman 986/EMS.s.26A
Aitken, T (1880) 'Vitrified Forts'. Trans Inverness Sci Soc Fld Club 1, 347-8
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London
Gentles, D S (1989) Archaeomagnetic Directional Studies of Large Fired Structures in Britain. PhD thesis, Plymouth Polytechnic
Gentles and Harden, D and G (1986) 'Craig Phadrig (Inverness and Bona p) Iron Age hill fort'. Disc Exc Scot (1986), 17
Gowans, J (1870) 'Letter from George Anderson'. Trans Edinburgh Geol Soc 1, 302-04
Headland Archaeology Ltd (2011) A Topographic Survey of Five Pictish Forts in the Highlands. Report to the Forestry Commission
Hibbert, S (1857) 'Collections relative to vitrified sites'. Archaeologia Scotica 4 (1857), 181-201
Peteranna, M and Birch, S (2015) Craig Phadrig Hillfort, Inverness: Archaeological Evaluation Data Structure Report. Data Structure Report AOC Archaeology Project Number: 70011
Pryer, T (1847) 'Proceedings of the Association'. J British Archaeol Assoc 2, 276
RCAHMS (2014) Craig Phadrig, Inverness: Survey and Review. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland & Forestry Commission Scotland: Edinburgh
Small, A (1971) «Craig Phadrig, Vitrified Fort». Disc Exc Scot (1971), 23
Small, A (1972) 'Craig Phadrig, Vitrified Fort'. Disc Exc Scot (1972), 23
Small, A & Cottam, M B (1972) Craig Phadrig: interim report on 1971 excavation. University of Dundee, Dept of Geography Occasional Papers No. 1, Dundee
Tytler, A F (1790) 'An Account of some Extraordinary Structures on the Tops of Hills in the Highlands; with Remarks on the Progress of the Arts among the ancient Inhabitants of Scotland'. Trans Roy Soc Edinburgh 2, Part II (ii), 3-33. Part of this paper was originally read to Philosophical Society of Edinburgh in 1783
Wallace, T (1918) 'Notes on the parish of Petty'. Trans Inverness Sci Soc Fld Club 8 (1912-18), 87-136
West, T (1777) 'An Account of a Volcanic Hill near Inverness, In a Letter from Thomas West, Esq. To Mr. Lane FRS'. Philosoph Trans Roy Soc London, Part 2, No 20, 385-387
Williams, J (1777) An account of some remarkable ancient ruins, lately discovered in the highlands and northern parts of Scotland: in a series of letters to G.C.M. Esq [Sir George Clerk-Maxwell]. 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