SC2958: Durn Hill | (Hill of Durn) |
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HER: Aberdeenshire Historic Environment Record NJ56SE0003
NMR: NJ 56 SE 4 (17973)
SM: ✗
NGR: NJ 5710 6383
X: 357100 Y: 863830 (EPSG:27700)
Boundary: ✗
This large enclosure occupies the summit of Durn Hill, which is a prominent rounded hill above Portsoy. Its perimeter comprises three roughly concentric lines, the inner and outer of which are probably the remains of palisade trenches, while the third lying between them comprises a low scarp for most of its circuit, accompanied over a distance of about 130m on the SW quarter by an external ditch with a counterscarp bank; the ditch, which is in the order of 3m in breadth by 0.9m in depth, is rough and irregular with several undug causeways that may reflect the division of labour between separate work gangs. Apparently the remains of an unfinished rampart, the larger stones lie along the inner lip of the ditch, and a gap at the SW angle is probably an original entrance. The palisade trenches are between 0.6m and 0.9m in breadth and up to 0.3m in depth, the inner broken by gaps on the NE and behind the entrance through the unfinished rampart on the SW. While there are several small gaps in the line of the outer on the E and SE, only a gap on the SW, where the outer line diverges outwards from the others is certainly the remains of an entrance. The only features visible within the interior are two low, stony ring-banks, one immediately to the rear of the northern end of the unfinished rampart and ditch, and the other further into the interior in the SW quadrant.
| Citizen Science: | ✗ |
| Reliability of Data: | Confirmed |
| Reliability of Interpretation: | Confirmed |
X: -302863 Y: 7896727 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.720661 Latitude: 57.662384 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Aberdeenshire
Historic County: Banffshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Fordyce
| Extant: | ✓ |
| Cropmark: | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed: | ✗ |
| Woodland: | ✗ |
| Commercial Forestry Plantation: | ✗ |
| Parkland: | ✗ |
| Pasture (Grazing): | ✓ |
| Arable: | ✗ |
| Scrub/Bracken: | ✗ |
| Bare Outcrop: | ✗ |
| Heather/Moorland: | ✓ |
| Heath: | ✗ |
| Built-up: | ✗ |
| Coastal Grassland: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| 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: ✗
| North: | ✗ |
| Northeast: | ✗ |
| East: | ✗ |
| Southeast: | ✗ |
| South: | ✗ |
| Southwest: | ✗ |
| West: | ✗ |
| Northwest: | ✗ |
| Level: | ✓ |
Altitude: 198.0m
| Boundary Type: | ✗ |
Second HER: ✗
Second Current County or Unitary Authority: ✗
Second Historic County: ✗
Second Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: ✗
Radiocarbon dates from a palisade (The Northern Picts Project Annual Report 2014, 37-8)
Reliability: C - Low
| Pre 1200BC: | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC: | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC: | ✓ |
| 400BC - AD50: | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400: | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800: | ✗ |
| Post AD800: | ✗ |
| Unknown: | ✗ |
| Pre Hillfort Activity: | ✗ |
| Post Hillfort Activity: | ✗ |
| C14: | No details. |
Oblique aerial photography by Aberdeen Archaeological Services is held by Aberdeenshire Council and RCAHMS
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1866): | Annotated Camp on 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Banffshire 1871, sheet 3.15) |
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1884): | Noted (Trans Banffshire Fld Club, 1884, 44-5) |
| Other (1956): | Description for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (RCAHMS BND 42/1; Feachem 1971, 27,-8) |
| Other (1961): | Revised at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Excavation (2014): | Evaluation by Gordon Noble demonstrates the character of the palisade trenches. |
Two stony ring-banks have been identified
| None: | ✓ |
| Spring: | ✗ |
| Stream: | ✗ |
| Pool: | ✗ |
| Flush: | ✗ |
| Well: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| No Known Features: | ✗ |
| Round Stone Structures: | ✓ |
| Rectangular Stone Structures: | ✗ |
| Curvilinear Platforms: | ✗ |
| Other Roundhouse Evidence: | ✗ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| No Known Excavation: | ✓ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Postholes: | ✗ |
| Roundhouses: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures: | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| Nothing Found: | ✗ |
| No Known Geophysics: | ✓ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Roundhouses: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures: | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| Nothing Found: | ✗ |
| 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
| Total Number of Breaks Through Ramparts: | 1: | The features are too slight to be certain to define the character of small gaps in the lines of the palisade trenches |
| Number of Possible Original Entrances: | 1: | There is consistently a gap in all three perimeters on the SW |
Guard Chambers: ✗
| Chevaux de Frise: | ✗ |
| Entrance 1 (Southwest): | Simple Gap: | Causeway through the unfinished ditch and rampart |
| Entrance 1 (Southwest): | Simple Gap: | in the outer palisade |
Two palisade trenches and an apparently unfinished rampart and ditch
| Enclosed Area 1: | 1.8ha. |
| Enclosed Area 2: | 2.6ha. |
| Enclosed Area 3: | 3.6ha. |
| Enclosed Area 4: | ✗ |
| Total Enclosed Area: | 3.6ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 3.6ha.
| Multi-period Enclosure System: | ✗ |
| Ramparts Form a Continuous Circuit: | ✓ | At least two of these lines are palisade trenches and the third the supposedly unfinished rampart |
| Number of Ramparts: | 3 |
| Number of Ramparts NE Quadrant: | 3 |
| Number of Ramparts SE Quadrant: | 3 |
| Number of Ramparts SW Quadrant: | 3 |
| Number of Ramparts NW Quadrant: | 3 |
| Partial Univallate: | ✗ |
| Univallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Multivallate: | ✓ |
| Unknown: | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate: | ✗ |
| Univallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Multivallate: | ✗ |
Claimed as the marker trenches of an unfinished fort, these are demonstrably palisade trenches
| None: | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank: | ✗ |
| Stone Wall: | ✗ |
| Rubble: | ✓ |
| Wall-walk: | ✗ |
| Evidence of Timber: | ✗ |
| Vitrification: | ✗ |
| Other Burning: | ✗ |
| Palisade: | ✓ |
| Counter Scarp Bank: | ✓ |
| Berm: | ✗ |
| Unfinished: | ✓ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| None: | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank: | ✗ |
| Stone Wall: | ✗ |
| Murus Duplex: | ✗ |
| Timber-framed: | ✗ |
| Timber-laced: | ✗ |
| Vitrification: | ✗ |
| Other Burning: | ✗ |
| Palisade: | ✓ |
| Counter Scarp Bank: | ✗ |
| Berm: | ✗ |
| Unfinished: | ✗ |
| No Known Excavation: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| Gang Working: | ✓ | Causeways in the bottom of the ditch may reflect gang-working practices |
Ditches: ✓
| Number of Ditches: | 1 |
| Annex: | ✗ |
Feachem, R W (1971) 'Unfinished hill-forts'. In Hill, D and Jesson, M (eds) The Iron Age and its hill-forts: papers presented to Sir Mortimer Wheeler on the occasion of his eightieth year. Southampton
Northern Picts Project Annual Report 2014 available at http://www.tarbat-discovery.co.uk/files/3114/2305/0534/Northern_Picts_Project_annual_report_2014.pdf
Atlas of Hillforts: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk/?query=Atlas_of_Hillforts_4166_0%2CMain_Atlas_Number%2C2958
Wikidata: http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q31084021
The online version of the Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland should be cited as:
Lock, G. and Ralston, I. 2017. Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland. [ONLINE] Available at: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.