Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland

SC2963: Tillymuick  

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HER:  Aberdeenshire Historic Environment Record NJ62SW0003

NMR:  NJ 62 SW 3 (18212)

SM:  5316

NGR:  NJ 6495 2450

X:  364950  Y:  824500  (EPSG:27700)

Boundary:  

Summary

This large enclosure is situated in a clearing on the gently rounded summit of a low hill enclosed within the forestry plantations along the N flank of the Bennachie hills. Where its perimeter can be traced through the rank heather and dense thickets of gorse and whins, it appears as a low stony bank spread 4.5m in thickness and no more than 0.5m in height, which has been constructed with material grubbed up from a shallow internal quarry about 5m in breadth to enclose an oval area measuring about 195m from ENE to WSW by 165m transversely (2.7). A gap in the bank on the N is approached by a hollowed trackway, but when most recently surveyed by RCAHMS, the investigators could detect little trace of the 56 hut-circles identified on a plan drawn up in 1957 during the RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands.

Status

Citizen Science:  ✗  

Reliability of Data:  Confirmed

Reliability of Interpretation:  Confirmed:  There are issues with the character of the defences here

Location

X:  -287587  Y:  7823703  (EPSG: 3857)

Longitude:  -2.583441  Latitude:  57.309793  (EPSG:4326)

Country:  Scotland

Current County or Unitary Authority:  Aberdeenshire

Historic County:   Aberdeenshire

Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland:  Premnay

Condition

Extant:  
Cropmark:  
Likely Destroyed:  

Land Use

A clearing in forestry but heavily overgrown with gorse and whins

Woodland:  
Commercial Forestry Plantation:  
Parkland:  
Pasture (Grazing):  
Arable:  
Scrub/Bracken:  
Bare Outcrop:  
Heather/Moorland:  
Heath:  
Built-up:  
Coastal Grassland:  
Other:  

Landscape

Hillfort Type

Contour Fort:  
Partial Contour Fort:  
Promontory Fort:  
Hillslope Fort:  
Level Terrain Fort:  
Marsh Fort:  
Multiple Enclosure Fort:  

Topographic Position

Hilltop:  
Coastal Promontory:  
Inland Promontory:  
Valley Bottom:  
Knoll/Hillock/Outcrop:  
Ridge:  
Cliff/Plateau-edge/Scarp:  
Hillslope:  
Lowland:  
Spur:  

Dominant Topographic Feature:  

Aspect

North:  
Northeast:  
East:  
Southeast:  
South:  
Southwest:  
West:  
Northwest:  
Level:  

Elevation

Altitude:  254.0m

Boundary

Boundary Type:  

Second HER:  

Second Current County or Unitary Authority:  

Second Historic County:  

Second Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland:  

Dating Evidence

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:  
1200BC - 800BC:  
400BC - AD50:  
AD50 - AD400:  
AD400 - AD 800:  
Post AD800:  
Unknown:  

Pre Hillfort Activity:  ✗  

Post Hillfort Activity:  ✗  

None:  No details.

Investigations

Aberdeenshire Council and RCAHMS hold a range of oblique aerial photographs of the site, where the vegetation conditions have changed dramatically between visits.

1st Identified Map Depiction (1867):  Annotated Camp on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Aberdeenshire 1870, sheet 44.15; Name Book, Aberdeenshire, No. 75, p 45)
1st Identified Written Reference (1883):  Notes (Yeats 1883)
Other (1943):  Description by Angus Graham and Gordon Childe for the RCAHMS wartime Emergency Surveys
Earthwork Survey (1957):  Plan and description for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (RCAHMS ABD 9/1-2 & DP147348-9)
Other (1973):  Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS
Other (1977):  Surveyed at 1:10,000 by the OS
Other (1981):  Visited by the Hill-Fort Study Group
Other (1992):  Scheduled
Earthwork Survey (1996):  Plan and description by RCAHMS (DC 44612; Halliday 2007, 99 fig 6.25, 103)

Interior Features

While the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Aberdeenshire 1870, shhet 44.15) shows one ring-bank and two tumuli, in 1943 Angus Graham reported 'perhaps up to two dozen' features that he considered to be the remains of hut-circles, some of which were platformed into the slope, and three small cairns. On a subsequent visit after heather burning he recognised many more, and the plan drawn up by Richard Feachem in 1957, when only the W third was obscured by deep heather, shows no less than 56, and a single rectangle, though he was circumspect in his description of their precise character and found it hard to believe that the sparse circles were the footings of walls. The most recent survey, carried out by RCAHMS concentrated on cleared areas of the rank vegetation where there the ground surface had been laid bare, but could detect no convincing examples.

Water Source

None:  
Spring:  
Stream:  
Pool:  
Flush:  
Well:  
Other:  

Surface

Internal quarry to rear of the perimeter

No Known Features:  
Round Stone Structures:  
Rectangular Stone Structures:  
Curvilinear Platforms:  
Other Roundhouse Evidence:  
Pits:  
Quarry Hollows:  
Other:  

Excavation

No Known Excavation:  
Pits:  
Postholes:  
Roundhouses:  
Rectangular Structures:  
Roads/Tracks:  
Quarry Hollows:  
Other:  
Nothing Found:  

Geophysics

No Known Geophysics:  
Pits:  
Roundhouses:  
Rectangular Structures:  
Roads/Tracks:  
Quarry Hollows:  
Other:  
Nothing Found:  

Finds

No Known Finds:  
Pottery:  
Metal:  
Metalworking:  
Human Bones:  
Animal Bones:  
Lithics:  
Environmental:  
Other:  

Aerial

NO APPARENT FEATURES

APs Not Checked:  
None:  
Roundhouses:  
Rectangular Structures:  
Pits:  
Postholes:  
Roads/Tracks:  
Other:  

Entrances

See main summary

Total Number of Breaks Through Ramparts:  

Number of Possible Original Entrances:   

Guard Chambers:  

Chevaux de Frise:  ✗  

Entrance 1 (North):  Simple Gap:  Approached by hollow trackway

Enclosing Works

Single bank of uncertain character

Enclosed Area 1:  2.7ha.
Enclosed Area 2:  
Enclosed Area 3:  
Enclosed Area 4:  
Total Enclosed Area:  2.7ha.

Total Footprint Area:  

Multi-period Enclosure System:  ✗  

Ramparts Form a Continuous Circuit:  ✓  

Number of Ramparts:  1

Number of Ramparts NE Quadrant:  1
Number of Ramparts SE Quadrant:  1
Number of Ramparts SW Quadrant:  1
Number of Ramparts NW Quadrant:  1

Current Morphology

Partial Univallate:  
Univallate:  
Partial Bivallate:  
Bivallate:
Partial Multivallate:  
Multivallate:  
Unknown:  

Multi-period Morphology

Partial Univallate:  
Univallate:  
Partial Bivallate:  
Bivallate:  
Partial Multivallate:  
Multivallate:  

Surface Evidence

None:  
Earthen Bank:  
Stone Wall:  
Rubble:  
Wall-walk:  
Evidence of Timber:  
Vitrification:  
Other Burning:  
Palisade:  
Counter Scarp Bank:  
Berm:  
Unfinished:  
Other:  

Excavated Evidence

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

Gang Working:  ✗ 

Ditches

Ditches:  

Number of Ditches:  

Annex

Annex:  ✗  

References

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 http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/

Yeats (1883) Trans Banffshire Fld Club (1883)

Terms of Use

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.

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