Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Aberdeenshire Historic Environment Record NJ52SW0008 (None)
NMR: NJ 52 SW 9 (17723)
SM: None
NGR: NJ 5035 2494
X: 350350 Y: 824940 (OSGB36)
The fort situated on the rounded summit of Cairn More, is almost entirely shrouded in gorse and whins, but a plan surveyed in 1956 for the RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands depicts the remains of two stone walls, the inner enclosing an area measuring about 52m from NE to SW by 46m transversely (0.19ha), and the outer about 64m by 44m (0.22ha). When revisited by RCAHMS investigators in 1999 this proved impossible to verify, and the walls on the N flank appeared as a single massive scree of tumbled stones, but an evaluation carried out in 2010 identified three lines of enclosure: an inner wall 1.6m in thickness; a substantial outer wall up to 4.5m in thickness by 0.5m in height; and an outer, stone-kerbed bank 1.3m in thickness by 0.2m in height with a shallow external ditch only 0.5m in breadth (Cook et al 2010); the entrance is on the SE. It is likely that the various perimeters represent several periods of construction, and one radiocarbon sample from a destruction deposit overlying the outer wall, and another from beneath the outer bank, returned dates about AD 410-630. Two early medieval brooch moulds and a pin mould were also recovered. Traces of cobbled surfaces were identified within the interior.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -314573 Y: 7824238 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.8258592170905663 Latitude: 57.31238780703557 (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 | ✗ |
Shrouded in gorse and whins
| 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: 320.0m
N/A
One radiocarbon date from a destruction deposit overlying the outer wall and another from below the outer bank indicate a phase of early medieval occupation about AD 410-630. Two brooch moulds and one pin mould recovered are also early medieval.
Reliability: B - Medium
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✓ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | Planted with trees |
| Artefactual: | Two brooch moulds and one pin mould |
| C14: | Two dates |
None
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1866): | Named in Gothic type on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Aberdeenshire 1870, sheet 43.13; Name Book, Aberdeenshire No.6, p 96) |
| 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 ABD 2/1-2 & DP147309) |
| Other (1967): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1999): | Description by RCAHMS (Halliday 2007, 101) |
| Excavation (2010): | Evaluation by Murray Cook, Martin Cook and Jamie Humble (Cook et al 2010; Cook 2011) |
No visible features
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 | ✗ |
Cobbled surfaces
| 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 | ✗ |
Shrouded in gorse
| 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 east): | None |
Two walls and an outer bank, probably representing separate phases of construction
| Area 1: | 0.19ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.22ha. |
| Total: | 0.22ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✓ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| 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 |
| ✗ | Traces of a minor ditch found in excavation |
Number of Ditches: None
| ✗ | None |
Cook. M (2011) 'New evidence for the activities of Pictish potentates in Aberdeenshire: the hillforts of Strathdon'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 141 (2011), 207-29
Cook, M, Cook, M and Humble, J (2010) 'Hillforts of Strathdon: Phase 4 - Cairnmore, Aberdeenshire (Auchindoir and Kearn parish), evaluation'. Disc Exc Scot, New Ser, 11 (2010), 14
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
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