Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Highland HER MHG2889 (None)
NMR: NH 73 NW 11 (14107)
SM: 3301
NGR: NH 7188 3930
X: 271880 Y: 839300 (OSGB36)
This small fortification is situated in a forestry clearing on the summit of Dun Davie, which formerly fell away steeply down towards Daviot all along its SE flank but is now hemmed in here and on the SW by the face of an active stone quarry. The fort is elliptical according to the plan drawn up by RCAHMS investigators in 1957, and measures about 37m from NE to SW by 18m transversely (0.05ha) within a wall about 3m in thickness, standing eccentrically within a larger pear-shaped enclosure measuring some 55m from NE to SW by a maximum of 48m transversely at the SW end (0.2ha). The perimeter of the latter formed a low scarp on the N and NW, and they also equated its line on the S with a scatter of stones. Keith Blood of the OS, however, believed these stones were merely tumble from the inner wall, and that the terrace elsewhere was a natural feature. Furthermore, he considered that the wall at the S end of the inner fort had been removed and that the interior probably measured no more than 28m from NE to SW (0.04ha). Elsewhere this wall is spread 5m thick and a few outer facing-stones are visible on the W; the entrance is on the S. The RCAHMS investigators also included a length of bank crossing a terrace about 25m to the SW of the fort, but Blood traced this southwards along the lip of the slope and suggested that this is not part of the defences but part of an independent enclosure of unknown date.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Unconfirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -460339 Y: 7847693 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -4.1352993597040015 Latitude: 57.42600327916593 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Highland
Historic County: Inverness-shire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Daviot And Dunlichity
None
| Extant | ✓ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✗ |
Having been under trees since the 19th century, it is currently in a clearing that perches on the lip of a deep stone quarry
| 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: 288.0m
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: | Evidently heavy robbing |
Under trees in the mid 19th century, it is not depicted on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map. Both RCAHMS and Highland HER hold aerial photographs of the fort.
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1824): | Letter from George Anderson to Samuel Hibbert (Anderson 1857, 198) |
| Other (1882): | Noted (Cameron 1882, 291-2) |
| Earthwork Survey (1957): | Plan and description for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (RCAHMS IND 90/1-2) |
| Other (1970): | Surveyed at 1:10,000 by the OS |
| Other (1973): | Scheduled |
| Earthwork Survey (1997): | Field evaluation by CFA (Rees 1997; RCAHMS MS726/108) |
Featureless
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 | ✗ |
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): | None |
An inner wall, possibly within a larger eccentric enclosure
| Area 1: | 0.04ha. |
| Total: | 0.04ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | Disputed outer enclosure is omitted |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| 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 | ✗ |
Previous assertions (see Cotton 1954, 80) that there is a vitrified wall here are a long-standing confusion going back to Samuel Hibbert (1857, 182), who seems to have misunderstood a letter about vitrified forts to him by George Anderson, though the latter is specific in stating that he found no vitrifaction here.
| 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
| ✗ | None |
Anderson, G (1857) 'On certain vitrified (and unvitrified) forts in the neighbourhood of Loch Ness and the Moray Firth. In a letter to Dr Hibbert'. Archaeologia Scotica 4 (1857), 195-201
Cameron, D (1882) 'Notice of the Ancient circular dwellings, hill forts, and burial cairns of Strathnairn'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 16 (1881-2), 288-94
Cotton, M A (1954) 'British camps with timber-laced ramparts'. Archaeol J 111 (1954), 26-105
Hibbert, S (1857) 'Observations on the Theories which have been proposed to explain the Vitrified Forts of Scotland'. Archaeologia Scotica 4 (1857), 160-82
Rees, T (1997) 'Dun Davie (Daviot & Dunlichity parish), Iron Age fort'. Disc Exc Scot (1997), 46
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