SC2916: Dunearn | (Doune) |
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HER: Highland HER MHG7083
NMR: NH 94 SW 1 (15497)
SM: 2470
NGR: NH 9324 4067
X: 293240 Y: 840670 (EPSG:27700)
Boundary: ✗
Situated on the summit of a low hill rising from the SE bank of the River Findhorn, this fort follows the contour around the flat-topped summit, which describes a sinuous S-shape on plan. The perimeter is largely reduced to two stony scarps separated by a terrace typically about 1.5m wide, but opinions on its true character vary, Angus Graham and Gordon Childe describing it in 1943 as a single rampart, the RCAHMS investigators drawing up the plan in 1956 for the Survey of Marginal Lands as two walls, and Alan Ayre for the OS in 1971 suggesting that the two scarps were so close together that they were perhaps the remains of a single structure. Nevertheless, in 1943 a slit trench dug into the inner, which in places forms a bank of rubble rising 0.6m above the level of the interior, revealed pieces of vitrified stone, and other pieces were observed in the SE sector in 1956, indicating that there is at the very least a timber-laced wall here. Ayre also noted traces of scarps on the slopes below the S and W flanks of the SW end of the fort, possibly representing the remains of outer ramparts blocking the easiest line of approach. The interior, which was under plough until about 1906, measures about 275m in length along a medial line by about 45m transversely (0.7ha). A gap in the S arc of the SW end, which is approached obliquely up the slope from the SW by a trackway may be an entrance, but a second gap noted by Ayre at the NE end does not appear on the plan drawn up in 1956 and may not be original.
| Citizen Science: | ✗ |
| Reliability of Data: | Confirmed |
| Reliability of Interpretation: | Confirmed |
X: -420831 Y: 7851379 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.780389 Latitude: 57.443827 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Highland
Historic County: Nairn
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Ardclach
| Extant: | ✓ |
| Cropmark: | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed: | ✗ |
| Woodland: | ✗ |
| Commercial Forestry Plantation: | ✗ |
| Parkland: | ✗ |
| Pasture (Grazing): | ✓ |
| Arable: | ✗ |
| Scrub/Bracken: | ✓ |
| Bare Outcrop: | ✗ |
| Heather/Moorland: | ✓ |
| Heath: | ✗ |
| Built-up: | ✗ |
| Coastal Grassland: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| 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: ✗
| North: | ✗ |
| Northeast: | ✗ |
| East: | ✗ |
| Southeast: | ✗ |
| South: | ✗ |
| Southwest: | ✗ |
| West: | ✗ |
| Northwest: | ✗ |
| Level: | ✓ |
Altitude: 266.0m
| Boundary Type: | ✗ |
Second HER: ✗
Second Current County or Unitary Authority: ✗
Second Historic County: ✗
Second Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: ✗
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: | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC: | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50: | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400: | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800: | ✗ |
| Post AD800: | ✗ |
| Unknown: | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort Activity: | ✗ |
| Post Hillfort Activity: | ✓ | Ploughing until 1906 and occupied by an artillery base in WWII. |
| None: | No details. |
Both Highland HER and RCAHMS also hold several ground views
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1918): | Description (Wallace 1918, 105) |
| Other (1943): | Description by Angus Graham and Gordon Childe for RCAHMS wartime Emergency Surveys |
| Earthwork Survey (1956): | Plan and description for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (RCAHMS DC 31545-6 & DP149871-2; Feachem 1963, 140) |
| Other (1964): | Scheduled |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1971): | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1974): | Piee of Iron slag picked up on the slopes outside the fort (Keillar 1974) |
| Other (1978): | Visited by RCAHMS |
| Other (2007): | Re-Scheduled |
Featureless and has been under plough
| None: | ✓ |
| Spring: | ✗ |
| Stream: | ✗ |
| Pool: | ✗ |
| Flush: | ✗ |
| Well: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| No Known Features: | ✓ |
| Round Stone Structures: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Stone Structures: | ✗ |
| Curvilinear Platforms: | ✗ |
| Other Roundhouse Evidence: | ✗ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| No Known Excavation: | ✓ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Postholes: | ✗ |
| Roundhouses: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures: | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| Nothing Found: | ✗ |
| No Known Geophysics: | ✓ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Roundhouses: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures: | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| Nothing Found: | ✗ |
| 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
| Total Number of Breaks Through Ramparts: | 2 |
| Number of Possible Original Entrances: |
Guard Chambers: ✗
| Chevaux de Frise: | ✗ |
| Entrance 1 (South): | Simple Gap: | Faces S but is at the SW end of this odd-shaped fort |
At least one vitrified wall
| Enclosed Area 1: | 0.7ha. |
| Enclosed Area 2: | ✗ |
| Enclosed Area 3: | ✗ |
| Enclosed Area 4: | ✗ |
| Total Enclosed Area: | 0.7ha. |
Total Footprint Area: ✗
| Multi-period Enclosure System: | ✗ |
| Ramparts Form a Continuous Circuit: | ✓ |
| Number of Ramparts: | 1 |
| Number of Ramparts NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| Number of Ramparts SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| Number of Ramparts SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| Number of Ramparts NW Quadrant: | 1 |
| Partial Univallate: | ✗ |
| Univallate: | ✓ |
| Partial Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Unknown: | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate: | ✗ |
| Univallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Multivallate: | ✗ |
| None: | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank: | ✗ |
| Stone Wall: | ✗ |
| Rubble: | ✓ |
| Wall-walk: | ✗ |
| Evidence of Timber: | ✗ |
| Vitrification: | ✓ |
| Other Burning: | ✗ |
| Palisade: | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank: | ✗ |
| Berm: | ✗ |
| Unfinished: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| None: | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank: | ✗ |
| Stone Wall: | ✗ |
| Murus Duplex: | ✗ |
| Timber-framed: | ✗ |
| Timber-laced: | ✗ |
| Vitrification: | ✗ |
| Other Burning: | ✗ |
| Palisade: | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank: | ✗ |
| Berm: | ✗ |
| Unfinished: | ✗ |
| No Known Excavation: | ✓ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| Gang Working: | ✗ |
Ditches: ✗
| Number of Ditches: |
| Annex: | ✗ |
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London
Keillar, I (1974) 'Ardclach, iron slag'. Disc Exc Scot (1974), 47
Wallace, T (1918) 'Archaeological Notes'. Trans Inverness Sci Soc Fld Club 8 (1912-18), 87-136
Atlas of Hillforts: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk/?query=Atlas_of_Hillforts_4166_0%2CMain_Atlas_Number%2C2916
Wikidata: http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q31102976
The online version of the Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland should be cited as:
Lock, G. and Ralston, I. 2017. Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland. [ONLINE] Available at: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.