Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Highland HER MHG10024 (None)
NMR: NH 68 NE 1 (13808)
SM: 1856
NGR: NH 6510 8824
X: 265100 Y: 888240 (OSGB36)
This fort encloses the summit of a ridge that rises from the southern end of a spit of land running out into the Dornoch Firth from the Sutherland shore. Its defences comprise two walls forming inner and outer enclosures, and at the centre of the inner the foundation of a rectangular medieval keep can also be seen. The inner wall, which has been heavily robbed, encloses an oval area measuring about 52m from E to W by 30m transversely (0.12ha), and at the foot of a slope immediately outside its line on the W there is a large mass of vitrifaction. The outer enclosure takes in a much larger area, and measures about 80m from NE to SW by 67m transversely within an equally ruinous wall, which follows the lip of the steep and rocky flanks of the hill on the N, E and S; in 1911 Alexander Curle also found a piece of vitrified stone in this line on the S. Two entrances into the outer enclosure are visible, one approached up the steep slope on the E, and the other up the more accessible crest of the ridge from the W. Apart from the keep, which itself stands within a small enclosure, the interior is featureless. A well shown on OS maps immediately outside the outer enclosure on the S is a natural crevice which gathers water. The relationship between the inner and outer enclosures is unknown.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -475940 Y: 7938656 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -4.2754459996933285 Latitude: 57.86330059917712 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Highland
Historic County: Sutherland
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Creich
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: 110.0m
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: | The interior is partly occupied by a medieval castle on the very summit |
Richard Feachem (1963, 158) combines measurements for the outer enclosure from the RCAHMS County Inventory for Sutherland (1911, 20-1, no.54), which Alexander Curle derived from the OS depiction, with for the inner slightly different measurements probably derived from his own fieldwork. Highland HER hold photographs.
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1793): | Vitrifaction noted (Stat Acct, 8, 1793, 373) |
| Other (1834): | Vitrifaction note (NSA 15, Sutherland, 18) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1874): | Named and annotated Vitrified Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Sutherland 1879, sheet 111.12) |
| Other (1909): | Description (RCAHMS 1911, 20-1, no.54) |
| Other (1935): | Scheduled |
| Other (1951): | Description by Richard Feachem (1963, 158) |
| Other (1963): | Revised at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1969): | Visited and description by the OS |
| Other (1980): | Surveyed at 1:10,000 by the OS |
Featureless apart from the castle
Natural crevice collects water immediately outside the outer wall on the S
| 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 | ✗ |
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
| 2: | None |
| 2: | No entrance discernible into the inner enclosure |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (East): | Possibly forming a shallow re-entrant in the line of the wall |
| 2. Simple Gap (West): | Outer wall |
Two walls forming eccentric enclosures around the summit
| Area 1: | 0.12ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.45ha. |
| Total: | 0.45ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.5ha.
None
| ✗ | The course of the two walls converges on the NW and they may have a stratigraphic relationship, but it cannot be resolved without excavation. |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 2 |
| Total: | 2 |
| 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
| ✗ | While the outer enclosure might be construed as an annexe, it is more likely to represent a separate period of enclosure. |
Cotton, M A (1954) 'British camps with timber-laced ramparts'. Archaeol J 111 (1954), 26-105 (p 78)
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London
NSA (1834-1845) The new statistical account of Scotland by the ministers of the respective parishes under the superintendence of a committee of the society for the benefit of the sons and daughters of the clergy.
RCAHMS (1911) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Second report and inventory of monuments and constructions in the county of Sutherland. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
Stat Acct (Date) Statistical Account of Scotland: Drawn up from the Communications of the Ministers of the Different Parishes (Sinclair, J ed), 1791-99
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