Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Aberdeenshire Historic Environment Record NJ70NW0013 (None)
NMR: NJ 70 NW 1 (18522)
SM: 57
NGR: NJ 7260 0714
X: 372600 Y: 807140 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on the summit of Barmekin Hill, but though the hill is a commanding topographical feature, the heather-clad defences remain inconspicuous features from the surrounding landscape. The defences comprise two main elements: an outer belt of four close-set ramparts with intervening quarry ditches; and an inner wall. A second wall, which overlies the innermost of the outer belt of defences is almost certainly a plantation wall built with stones robbed from the inner wall in the 18th century (Stat Acct, xiii, 1794, 620-1n). The inner wall, which is accompanied by a shallow internal quarry scoop, encloses a slightly oval area measuring about 112m from N to S by 105m transversely (0.95ha) and is pierced by five entrances corresponding to gaps in the outer belt of defences; those on the N, S and W are choked with rubble, though there is no evidence that this is the result of deliberate blocking, while the entrance on the E carries a well worn modern track from which stones appear to have been cleared to form prominent flanking banks running up through the defences. The tracks leading up from the other entrance are also flanked by banks, but these are much lower and more ephemeral features. The outer belt is about 20m deep and lies some 10m outside the wall, comprising four ramparts along which occasional facing-stones can be seen all round the circuit, separated by irregular quarry ditches; an internal quarry can also be traced to the rear of the innermost. At most of the entrances the terminals of the ramparts either appear to turn slightly inwards, in the case of one side of the W entrance with each rampart butting onto the rampart behind it, or they return and unite around the ends of the ditches, essentially creating well-defined passageways leading up to the entrances in the inner wall. While the relationship between the inner wall and the outer defences is not known, it is quite likely that the outer was an earlier free-standing fortification enclosing an area measuring about 140m from N to S by 128m transversely (1.51ha). The interior is featureless and there is not even any trace of the observatory built in 1822.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -273238 Y: 7791738 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.4545362806897666 Latitude: 57.154376679892586 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Aberdeenshire
Historic County: Aberdeenshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Echt
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: 275.0m
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: | The discoveries of two stone axes are attributed to the Barmekin of Echt (NMAS AF388; ABDUA 16067) |
| Post Hillfort: | Enclosed with a plantation wall in the late 18th century and the site of an observatory built to track Venus in 1822 |
Aberdeenshire Council and RCAHMS hold oblique aerial photographs of the fort taken under various conditions
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1762): | Noted by Alexander Gordon (1726, 162) |
| Other (1795): | Description, also noting that the outer wall is a plantation boundary (Stat Acct, xiii, 1794, 620-1n) |
| Earthwork Survey (1820): | Sketch-plan by James Skene (RCAHMS ABD 498/1P & SC730334) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1822): | Depicted on James Robertson's Topographical and military map of the counties of Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine (1822) |
| Earthwork Survey (1865): | Annotated Camp on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Aberdeenshire 1869, sheet 73.10). Curiously shows only the N and SW entrance |
| Earthwork Survey (1920): | Sketch-plan and description (Simpson 1920) |
| Other (1953): | Scheduled |
| Other (1957): | Description for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (Feachem 1963, 104) |
| Other (1964): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 |
| Other (1981): | Visited by the Hill-Fort Study Group |
| Earthwork Survey (2000): | Plan and description (RCAHMS DC44346-7 & SC1333074; DC44597; DC44608; Halliday 2007, 99 6.25, 108) |
| Other (2002): | Re-Scheduled |
Featureless
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 | ✗ |
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 | ✗ |
Two stone axes
| 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
| 5: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Passage-way/Corridor (North): | Through all ramparts |
| 1. Oblique (North): | Slightly staggered gaps creating oblique approach exposing the left side |
| 2. Passage-way/Corridor (East): | Through all ramparts |
| 3. Passage-way/Corridor (South): | Through all ramparts |
| 4. Passage-way/Corridor (South west): | Through all ramparts |
| 4. Oblique (South west): | Staggered gaps creating oblique approach exposing the left side |
| 5. Passage-way/Corridor (West): | Through all ramparts |
| 5. Oblique (West): | Staggered gaps creating oblique approach exposing the left side |
An outer belt of four close-set ramparts, and an inner wall
| Area 1: | 0.95ha. |
| Area 2: | 1.51haf. |
| Total: | 1.51ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 2.5ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | Inner wall representing one phase, and an outer belt of four concentric ramparts representing another |
| NE Quadrant: | 5 |
| SE Quadrant: | 5 |
| SW Quadrant: | 5 |
| NW Quadrant: | 5 |
| Total: | 5 |
| 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: 3
| ✗ | None |
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London
Gordon, A (1726) Itinerarium Septentrionale: or A Journey Thro' most of the Counties of Scotland And Those in the North of England. London
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
Simpson, W D (1920a) 'The hill fort on the Barmkin of Echt, Aberdeenshire', Proc Soc Antiq Scot 54 (1919-20), 45-50
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