Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Moray per Aberdeenshire Council NJ33NW0012 (None)
NMR: NJ 33 NW 1 (16797)
SM: 90024
NGR: NJ 3488 3745
X: 334880 Y: 837450 (OSGB36)
The 15th century tower standing within a courtyard and known as Auchindoun Castle occupies part of an earlier earthwork enclosure which is commonly regarded as the remains of a prehistoric fort (Simpson 1929, 127n). The defences of this earlier earthwork comprise an inner enclosure taking in the summit of the hillock upon which the castle stands, and an outer enclosure at the foot of the slope below, springing from the lip of the escarpment where the ground falls away steeply on the SE to the River Fiddich. The inner enclosure is polygonal on plan and measures about 55m from NE to SW by about 47m transversely (0.22ha) within a ditch up to 7m in breadth and flanked externally by a counterscarp rampart. The ditch of the outer enclosure lies roughly concentric to the inner between 15m and 25m outside its line, and again comprises a broad ditch with and external rampart; a curious feature of this enclosure is the way in which the ditch appears to turn outwards along the lip of the escarpment on the NE. It forms an enclosure measuring some 120m from NE to SW along the chord formed by the escarpment on the SE by at least 75m transversely, though the NW sector has been obliterated by cultivation and the SW sector, which also has an old limekiln set into the scarp of the ditch, is also heavily reduced. The position of the entrance is uncertain, possibly lying where the later approach to the stone castle overlies the defences on the W. The scale and character of these defences are such, however, that they would be very unusual in a prehistoric context and they are more likely to be the remains of an earlier earth and timber castle commanding this important route across the hills to the Cabrach and Rhynie.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Unconfirmed
X: -343526 Y: 7847030 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.0859437556891645 Latitude: 57.422795705132714 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Moray
Historic County: Banffshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Mortlach
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: 275.0m
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: | This is probably a medieval castle anyway. The defences are ploughed down, quarried and overlain by an old limekiln |
| Morphology/Earthwork/Typology: | Look more likely as castle defences |
The outlying earthworks are possibly indicated by the depiction on James Robertson's Topographical and military map of the counties of Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine (1822). Aberdeenshire Council hold aerial views of the earthworks
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1868): | Named in Gothic type and ditches annotated Fosse on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Banff 1872, sheet 25.14) |
| Other (1887): | Description and plan of the stone castle (MacGibbon and Ross 1887-92, i, 314-17) |
| Other (1943): | Visited by Angus Graham for the RCAHMS wartime Emergency Surveys; noted the earthworks |
| Other (1967): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
Featureless apart from the stone castle
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Occupied by 15th century castle
| 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
| 0: | None |
| 2: | Not known |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
Two wide spaced ditches with external ramparts
| Area 1: | 0.22ha. |
| Total: | 0.22ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.95ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| 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: 2
| ✗ | None |
MacGibbon and Ross, D and T (1887-92) The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries. 5v David Douglas: Edinburgh
Simpson, W D (1929) 'The early castles of Mar. (First paper)'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 63 (1928-9), 102-38
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