Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Highland HER MHG44719 (None)
NMR: NH 87 SW 6 (15300)
SM: 5215
NGR: NH 8434 7360
X: 284340 Y: 873600 (OSGB36)
This fortification crowns a steep-sided knoll at the foot of the NE flank of the Hill of Nigg. The visible remains comprise two elements: a thick-walled round-house enclosed within up to two outer walls occupying the very top of the knoll; and a larger outer enclosure taking in the whole of the summit area and protected by a massive ditch and rampart encircling its foot. In 2013 Candy Hatherley excavated evaluation trenches across the Inner round-house, which measures about 10.5m in diameter within a wall 3m in thickness, and its outer walls. Radiocarbon dates from a range of contexts suggest that these elements of the occupation date 400-200 BC; the outer works, however, remain undated. These latter probably accompany a rampart following the shoulder of the knoll to form an oval enclosure measuring up to 80m from E to W by 48m transversely (0.32ha), though the rampart itself is reduced to little more than a stony scarp and on the E appears to become the outermost wall enclosing this side of the thick-walled round-house. The flanks of the knoll may have been scarped in places, falling away steeply into the bottom of a broad external ditch with an external earthen rampart, which is best preserved in the NE, SE and NW sectors. There is also an outer bank on the SE. The entrance is on the E and approaches the summit up a sloping ramp from the NE.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -439077 Y: 7912328 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.9442958072399814 Latitude: 57.73727320288041 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Highland
Historic County: Ross-shire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Nigg
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: 75.0m
N/A
Excavations by Candy Hatherley have recovered samples that have returned dates 400-200 BC for contexts both within and under the thick-walled round-house and its surrounding wall. The surrounding system of ditches and banks, probably with its inner rampart on the shoulder of the knoll, is not dated.
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✓ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✓ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | None |
| C14: | Seven Radiocarbon dates |
RCAHMS hold a number of photographs, including aerial views taken in 1972 and 1991, while Highland HER also hold several ground views.
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1836): | Noted as a Danish fort (NSA, 14, Ross-shire, 24) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1872): | Annotated Danish Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Ross-shire 1881, sheet 55.11; Name Book, Ross-shire, No.26, p 20) |
| Earthwork Survey (1957): | Plan and description for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (RCAHMS RCD 2/1) |
| Other (1972): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1977): | Marginal Lands plan adapted and description by RCAHMS (RCAHMS RCD 2/2) |
| Other (1981): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1991): | Scheduled |
| Earthwork Survey (2013): | Marginal Lands plan redrawn on the ground by George Geddes for Candy Hatherley (RCAHMS DC49484 & SC1322638) |
Largely occupied by the thick-walled round-house and its outworks
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Thick-walled round-house and its outworks
| No Known Features | ✗ |
| Round Stone Structures | ✗ |
| Rectangular Stone Structures | ✗ |
| Curvilinear Platforms | ✗ |
| Other Roundhouse Evidence | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
Paving
| 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 | ✗ |
Thick-walled round-house and its outworks
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
See main summary
| 1: | Outer works are incomplete, but the only original access is from the E |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Over-lapping (East): | Possible overlapping terminals, but heavily degraded and uncertain |
| 1. Simple Gap (East): | Entrance to inner enclosures around the round-house |
Inner enclosure around a thick-walled round-house, within what is probably a much larger earlier fort
| Area 1: | 0.32ha. |
| Total: | 0.32ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 1.0ha.
None
| ✓ | None |
| ✓ | This excludes the inner enclosure around the thick-walled round-house |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 3 |
| 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 |
| ✓ | None |
Number of Ditches: 1
| ✗ | None |
Name Book, Ordnance Survey Object Name Books (6 inch and 1/2500 scale); available https://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/
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, 15v 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