LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Aberdeenshire Historic Environment Record NJ86NW0001 (None)
NMR: NJ 86 NW 1 (19942)
SM: 11037
NGR: NJ 8373 6621
X: 383730 Y: 866210 (OSGB36)
The presence of a fort with a vitrified wall was first noted in 1777 on this promontory forming the N side of Cullykhan Bay (Williams 1777, 67-9), but it is not shown on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map as such, and is otherwise noted only for also being the site of a medieval castle and a later artillery fortification. The promontory is girt with steep slopes and cliffs, its summit measuring 260m in overall length by a maximum of some 70m transversely at the W end, little more than 20m in the central sector occupied by the stump of the medieval keep, and widening to 47m at the roughly square E end; as defined, it is likely that it was once a promontory fortification enclosing up to 1ha. Apart from the medieval keep and the artillery fortification that occupied the seaward end of the promontory, the line of a grass grown rampart containing vitrified stone can be traced round at least two sides of the W or landward end, on the W and N respectively, perhaps forming a rather smaller rectilinear enclosure measuring internally about 54m from E to W by from 30m to 48m transversely (0.25ha). Excavations directed by Colvin Greig 1963-72 focused on this W portion and the keep, and revealed a complex history of occupation and fortification, though in the absence of new radiocarbon dates the precise chronology remains unclear, and the detail of the stratigraphic sequence is not yet published. Nevertheless, the burnt and partly vitrified timber-laced rampart overlay earlier deposits from which one charcoal sample returned a date of AD 420-640 (GU-2094), probably indicating that this phase of the fortifications was constructed in the early medieval period. Excavations on a knoll prolonging the neck of the promontory on the W, however, also uncovered a gateway in a stone wall with substantial vertical timbers set in its external face, the stumps of several of which survived in situ; one of these returned an earlier date correcting to 800-200 BC (BM-639). It seems to represent an earlier fortification on the promontory with an elaborate entrance. A timber palisade was also excavated immediately east of this, though whether as postulated by some writers (MacKie 1976, 219-20) there was ever a palisaded phase as such is uncertain. Occupation deposits sealed beneath the ramparts also produced earlier Iron Age dates, and there was extensive evidence of iron and copper alloy metalworking. The broad span of the radiocarbon dates obtained, and the Late Bronze Age chisel from deposits beneath the burnt rampart may indicate the defensive sequence is more complex than is currently understood (see Greig 1970; 1971; 1972), but there is no reason why it should represent continuous occupation of the promontory over such a long period.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -253197 Y: 7901542 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.2745034207010675 Latitude: 57.685516378092274 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Aberdeenshire
Historic County: Banffshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Gamrie
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: 20.0m
N/A
Old radiocarbon dates indicate that there were defences built here at various times during the early Iron Age and early medieval period. The LBA chisel is associated with an earlier occupation lying beneath 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: | None |
| Artefactual: | Late Roman sherds and a LBA tanged chisel |
| C14: | Eleven old radiocarbon dates |
None
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1777): | Vitrifaction noted by John Williams (1777, 67-9) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1869): | Annotated Castle on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Banffshire 1871, sheet 1.10) |
| Earthwork Survey (1963): | By Colvin Greig prior to excavations |
| Excavation (1964): | By Greig and R H Cairns (1964, 22) |
| Excavation (1965): | By Greig and R H Cairns |
| Other (1965): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Excavation (1966): | By Greig and R H Cairns |
| Excavation (1967): | By Greig and R H Cairns (1967) |
| Excavation (1968): | By Greig |
| Excavation (1969): | By Greig |
| Excavation (1970): | By Greig |
| Excavation (1971): | By Greig (1971) |
| Excavation (1972): | By Greig (1972) |
| Other (2005): | Scheduled |
Nothing visible on the surface, but extensive evidence of occupation found in excavation
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 | ✗ |
Hearths and 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 | ✗ |
Finds include crude pottery, a Late Bronze Age tanged chisel, an iron chisel and other fragments of iron, fragments of shale bracelets and a soap-stone bead. Extensive evidence for bronze and iron industrial waste included crucibles for copper alloy working and iron slag.
| 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
| 1: | None |
| 2: | An entrance was excavated at the neck of the promontory |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (West): | Substantial timber structures |
Vitrified wall enclosing the W end of a much large promontory; other timber-framed defence across the neck further west, including a palisade
| Area 1: | 0.25ha. |
| Area 2: | 1.0ha. |
| Total: | 1.0ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✓ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| 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: None
| ✗ | None |
Greig, J C (1970) 'Excavations at Castle Point, Troup, Banffshire'. Aberdeen Univ Rev 43.3 (Spring 1970), 274-83
Greig, J C (1971) 'Excavations at Cullykhan, Castle Point, Troup, Banffshire'. Scot Archaeol Forum 3 (1971), 15-21
Greig, J C (1972) 'Cullykhan'. Curr Archaeol 3.8 (1972), 227-31
Greig and Cairns, J C & R H (1964) 'Castlehead, Troup'. Disc Exc Scot (1964), 22-3
Greig and Cairns, J C & R H (1967) 'Castlehead, Troup'. Disc Exc Scot (1967), 16-17
Greig and Greig, M K and C (1989) 'Remains of a 12th-century structure and other medieval features on the Knoll of Castle Point, Troup (Cullykhan), Banff and Buchan'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 119 (1989), 279-96
MacKie, E W (1976) 'The vitrified forts of Scotland', in Harding, D W (ed) Hillforts: later prehistoric earthworks in Britain and Ireland. Academic Press: London, New York & San Francisco, 205-35
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