Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Aberdeenshire Historic Environment Record NJ42NE0001 (None)
NMR: NJ 42 NE 1 (17169)
SM: 63
NGR: NJ 4845 2930
X: 348450 Y: 829300 (OSGB36)
The fortifications enclosing the summit of Tap o'Noth comprise two elements: a heavily vitrified and massively constructed inner enclosure upon the summit of the whale-backed hill; and a large outer enclosure bounded by a rampart contouring much further down the slope. The enclosure on the summit measures at least 85m from NW to SE by 30m transversely (0.26ha) within a wall now reduced to a bank of rubble up to 15m in thickness by 3m in internal height. Quarrying around the inner edge of the bank has exposed large masses of vitrifaction, which can also be seen in the massive scree of debris that has tumbled down the slope outside. No evidence of an entrance is visible; the present access over the wall from the E via a stony external ramp was already present in the 19th century and is more likely to have been erected by quarrymen. Drawn in an arc across the SE end of the interior, however, there are traces of two banks with a medial ditch, while roughly at the centre are possible traces of a ring-ditch house; the relationship between these features and the wall are not known, partly because the ends of the banks and ditch have been truncated by the quarrying activity. The only other feature within the interior is a well. The large outer enclosure measures about 550m from NW to SE by 400m transversely (16.4ha), within a heavily-robbed stone rampart that has been almost obliterated in some places, particularly along the steep S flank of the hill. Traces of an internal quarry scoop can be seen to the rear of this wall on the NW quarter and on the E. There are ten gaps in the line of the wall, disposed on the E, N and W, but at least five of them are probably relatively recent, with traces of trackways mounting the slope towards the summit; of the rest, those on the E and NNW are almost certainly original, and possibly a third on the W. Several of the trackways visible within the interior seem to service the clusters of small house-platforms that pockmark the slopes below the upper enclosure.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -318186 Y: 7832271 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.858309714072343 Latitude: 57.3513379928312 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Aberdeenshire
Historic County: Aberdeenshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Rhynie
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: Commanding Hill
| North | ✗ |
| Northeast | ✗ |
| East | ✗ |
| Southeast | ✗ |
| South | ✗ |
| Southwest | ✗ |
| West | ✗ |
| Northwest | ✗ |
| Level | ✓ |
Altitude: 563.0m
N/A
In the absence of modern 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: | Quarrying and lookout hut |
| Other: | Erroneous thermoluminescence date (Sanderson et al 1988) |
Extensive coverage of oblique aerial photographs is held by RCAHMS and Aberdeenshire Council
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1782): | Noted (Douglas 1782) |
| Other (1796): | Noted (Stat Acct 17, 1796, 487) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1822): | Shown as rectangular enclosure on James Robertson's Topographical and Military Map of the Counties of Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine (1822) |
| Other (1831): | Description and sketch (Hibbert 1857, 295-7, pl xi) |
| Other (1865): | Annotated Vitrified Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Aberdeenshire 1870, sheet 42.4) |
| Excavation (1886): | Wall sectioned by J Macdonald (1886) |
| Earthwork Survey (1886): | Plan by F W Troup (Macdonald 1886) |
| Other (1943): | Visited by Angus Graham and Gordon Childe for the RCAHMS wartime Emergency Surveys |
| Other (1954): | Visited for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (Feachen 1963, 105; 1966, 67-8) |
| Other (1961): | Scheduled |
| Other (1967): | Surveyed at 1:10,000 by the OS |
| Other (1969): | Visited by Helen Nisbet (1974, 5, 9) |
| Other (1978): | Visited by Aberdeen Archaeological Services |
| Other (1981): | Visited by Aberdeen Archaeological Services (Ralston and Watt 1981) |
| Other (1981): | Visited by the Hill-fort Study Group |
| Other (1982): | Platforms noted (Ralston and Watt 1982) |
| Other (1983): | Platforms noted (Ralston and Watt 1983) |
| Other (1985): | Visited by Aberdeen Archaeological Services |
| Other (1985): | Vitrifaction cored for TL date (Sanderson et al 1988) |
| Other (1997): | Inner enclosure noted (Alexander and Dunwell 1997) |
| Earthwork Survey (1999): | Plan and description (Halliday 2007, 103-5 figs 6.29-30) |
Single round-house within the inner enclosure, and large numbers of small circular platform within the outer enclosure
Within the inner vitrified fort
| None | ✗ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✓ |
| Other | ✗ |
Single possible ring-ditch house and a well within the inner; large numbers of small circular platforms within the outer enclosure
| 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
| 10: | None |
| 2: | All in the large outer fort; none in the inner |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (East): | None |
| 2. Simple Gap (West): | None |
| 3. Simple Gap (North west): | None |
Two walls forming inner and outer enclosures and probably representing separate periods
| Area 1: | 0.26ha. |
| Area 2: | 16.4ha. |
| Total: | 16.4ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✓ | The bank with medial ditch in the interior is unlikely to be contemporary with the inner wall, though the relationship has been destroyed by quarrying |
| ✓ | Internal enclosure excluded |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| 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: None
| ✗ | None |
Cotton, M A (1954) 'British camps with timber-laced ramparts'. Archaeol J 111 (1954), 26-105 (p 82)
Christison, D (1898) Early fortifications in Scotland: motes, camps and forts: the Rhind lectures in archaeology for 1894. Blackwood & Sons: Edinburgh (p 174-5)
Douglas, F (1782) A general description of the east coast of Scotland from Edinburgh to Cullen... in a series of letters to a friend. Paisley
Dunwell and Strachan, A and R (1997) 'Tap o' Noth (Rynie parish), enclosure; ?hut circles', Disc Exc Scot (1997), 11
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London
Feachem, R W (1966) 'The hill-forts of northern Britain'. In Rivet, A L F (ed) The iron age in northern Britain. Edinburgh University Press Edinburgh
Halliday, S P (2007) The later prehistoric landscape. In RCAHMS (2007) In the Shadow of Bennachie: A Field Archaeology of Donside, Aberdeenshire. RCAHMS & Society of Antiquaries of Scotland: Edinburgh
Hibbert, S (1857) 'Collections relative to vitrified sites'. Archaeologia Scotica 4 (1857), 181-201
Nisbet, H C (1974) 'A geological approach to vitrified forts, part I: the archaeological and scientific background'. Sci & Archaeol 12 (1974), 3-12
Ralston and Watt, I and W (1981) 'Tap o' Noth (Rhynie p): hut platforms'. Disc Exc Scot (1981), 14
Ralston and Watt, I and W (1982) 'Tap o' Noth (Rhynie p): platforms'. Disc Exc Scot (1982), 12
Ralston and Watt, I and W (1983) 'Tap o' Noth (Rhynie p): platforms'. Disc Exc Scot (1983), 10
Sanderson, Placido and Tate, D C W, F and J O (1988) 'Scottish vitrified forts: TL results from six study sites', Nuclear Tracks Radiation Measurements 14 (1988), 307-16
Stat Acct (date) Statistical Account of Scotland: Drawn up from the Communications of the Ministers of the Different Parishes (Sinclair, J ed), 1791-99
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