Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Aberdeenshire Historic Environment Record NJ42NE0005 (None)
NMR: NJ 42 NE 5 (17215)
SM: 11681
NGR: NJ 4729 2605
X: 347290 Y: 826050 (OSGB36)
This small fortification occupies the summit of a conical hill forming the eastern end of a ridge WSW of Rhynie above Wheedlemont. Oval on plan, it measures about 50m from NE to SW by 30m transversely (0.11ha) within a wall reduced to low band of rubble on the inner lip of a ditch with a counterscarp bank; the ditch measures up to 4m in breadth by 1m in depth. Traces of a continuous internal quarry can be traced to the rear of the wall around the whole circuit, while set along the spine of the interior there is a row of at least three timber round-houses. The entrance is on the NE.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -320254 Y: 7826222 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.876888798339284 Latitude: 57.322014012983935 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Aberdeenshire
Historic County: Aberdeenshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Auchindoir And Kearn
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: 352.0m
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 |
RCAHMS and Aberdeenshire Council also hold oblique aerial photography.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1865): | Annotated Camp on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Aberdeenshire 1870, sheet 42.12; Name Book, Aberdeenshire, No.6, p 47-8) |
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1870): | Noted by Andrew Jervise (1870, 327) |
| Other (1930): | Noted (Simpson 1930, 53; 1932, 99) |
| Earthwork Survey (1956): | Plan and description for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (RCAHMS ABD 10/1-2 & DP 147345-6) |
| Other (1967): | Revised at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1974): | Sherd found Proc Soc Antiq Scot 104 (1971-2), 316 |
| Other (1981): | Visited by the Hill-fort Study Group |
| Earthwork Survey (1996): | Plan and description (RCAHMS DC44318 & SC 1333001; DC44602; DC44645; Halliday 2007, 99-100, fig 6.25) |
| Other (2007): | Scheduled |
Traces of at least three round-houses, one with traces of a ring-ditch
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
At least three round-houses and traces of internal quarrying all the way round the circuit. Possible ring-ditch house
| 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 | ✗ |
None
| 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 (North east): | None |
Wall, ditch and counterscarp bank
| Area 1: | 0.11ha. |
| Total: | 0.11ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.2ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| NW Quadrant: | 1 |
| Total: | 1 |
| 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 |
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
Jervise, A (1870) 'Notes respecting the castle of Craig and the old kirk of Auchindoir, &c., in Aberdeenshire'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 8 (1868-70), 323-30
Simpson, W D (1930) 'Craig Castle and the Kirk of Auchindoir, Aberdeenshire'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 64 (1929-30), 48-96
Simpson, W D (1932) 'Lesmoir Castle and the Church of Essie: with some further notes on Auchindoir'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 66 (1931-2), 86-101
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