LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
Scroll left/right to view further images.
HER: Moray per Aberdeenshire Council NH95SE0003 (None)
NMR: NH 95 SE 1 (15564)
SM: None
NGR: NH 9978 5156
X: 299780 Y: 851560 (OSGB36)
A ditch some 90m in length blocks access from the SW to a large promontory formed between the escarpment on the W bank of the River Findhorn and the ravine cut by the Dunearn Burn on the W and N on its way to their confluence on the NE. The position of the ditch was excluded from early editions of the OS map, but is shown on a modern edition on the S. The upper part of the promontory, which rises into a rounded summit, is flanked on the W by the ravine, but elsewhere the ground falls away quite steeply, on the N some 15m down to the ravine-edge, and on the E as much as 30m to the escarpment above the river. The ditch itself measures some 4m to 5m in breadth by little more than 0.6m in depth and is flanked on both sides by traces of low banks. The entrance causeway noted by Alan Ayre of the OS was not observed on a more recent visit, which found that the ground beneath the trees is now more accessible, though visibility is still restricted. Nevertheless, in the central sector the forestry ploughing has exposed a band of stones and larger water-worn boulders set back between 4m and 5m from the N side of the ditch, and this can be traced as a low stony scarp up to 0.7m high extending westwards to the edge of the modern track on the edge of the ravine on this side. On the opposite side of the promontory, about 15m behind the ditch, a second stony scarp turns W off the lip of the promontory and can be traced most of the way across the neck. Without excavation it is impossible to be certain of the true character of these scarps, but it is possible that they are the last remnants of a belt of defences cutting off the promontory. The extent of the enclosure is uncertain, but the overall area that may have been enclosed is well in excess of 3ha. If it is indeed the remains of a fort, however, the interior may have occupied a rather smaller area measuring about 100m from E to W by 65m transversely on the summit, the N side of which is bounded by a pronounced lip; a few boulders have been exposed where a woodland pathway cuts through the lip at the NE corner.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Unconfirmed
X: -409205 Y: 7871943 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.6759541665521787 Latitude: 57.543098299227466 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Moray
Historic County: Morayshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Edinkillie
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: 145.0m
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: | Planted with trees |
Named topographic feature on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Elgin 1874, sheet 15), but not annotated as an antiquity
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1871): | Noted in the Name Book (Elginshire, No.6, p 40) |
| Other (1971): | Visited and description by the OS |
| Other (1985): | Notes by Ian Keillar (1985) |
| Other (2015): | Description by S Halliday |
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: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (South): | None |
Single ditch cutting off large promontory
| Area 1: | 2.5ha. |
| Total: | 2.5ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 3.4ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | Little more than the ditch is visible |
| NE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 0 |
| Total: | 0 |
| 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 |
Keillar, I (1985) 'Edinkillie p, Defended Site'. Disc Exc Scot (1985), 19
Name Book, Ordnance Survey Object Name Books (6 inch and 1/2500 scale); available https://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/
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