Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Aberdeenshire Historic Environment Record NJ86SE0014 (None)
NMR: NJ 86 SE 17 (19958)
SM: 2450
NGR: NJ 8951 6491
X: 389510 Y: 864910 (OSGB36)
Dundarg Castle occupies a narrow promontory running out from the coastal escarpment for a distance of about 80m across the wave cut rock platform that forms the foreshore. At the landward end there is also an earthwork defence comprising a broad flat-bottomed inner ditch with a V-shaped outer ditch forming a rectilinear forework with a frontage of some 80m facing SSW and extending well beyond the margins of the promontory. To their rear, however, at the very root of the promontory, there are also traces of another ditch, which on excavation proved to be some 4m in breadth by 2m in depth and was accompanied by an internal rampart (Fojut and Love 1983). Though undated, this possibly forms part of an earlier defence cutting off a narrow finger of ground measuring about 100m in length and no more than 15m in breadth (0.12ha). The proximity of the parish church of Aberdour to the castle, lying little more than 1km to the WSW, has also led to the correlation of the site of the castle with a reference in the Book of Deer to a Cathair or fortified place hereabouts. The case for an earlier fortification here has also been sustained by the discovery of an enamelled button during earlier excavations at the castle (see discussion in Fojut and Love 1983), and to a lesser extent with a wooden ard-point probably of Iron Age date recovered from one of the ditches (Rees 1983). The case is my no means conclusive, and as far as the documentary reference is concerned it is worth noting that General William Roy's Military map of Scotland (1747-55) annotates a rectangular enclosure on the cliffs roughly midway between the castle and the church 'Danish Entrenchments', suggesting there were other traditions of ancient enclosures in the neighbourhood.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -242399 Y: 7899147 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.1775110079343536 Latitude: 57.67401237420102 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Aberdeenshire
Historic County: Aberdeenshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Aberdour
None
| Extant | ✓ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✗ |
Largely occupied by the later castle
| 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
Documentary reference to an early medieval fortification here possibly refers to the site of the castle, which has also produced an enamelled button possibly of Roman Iron Age date
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | Occupied by castle |
| Artefactual: | Enamelled button |
| Other: | Supposed documentary reference |
While the ruins appearing on earlier maps, the earthwork defences are first shown on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Aberdeenshire 1874, sheet 2.9). Both RCAHMS and Aberdeenshire Council hold oblique aerial views of the castle.
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1794): | Description of the earthworks (Stat Acct, xii, 17 578-9n) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1871): | Named in Gothic type on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Aberdeenshire 1874, sheet 2.9) |
| Excavation (1911): | Of the castle (Beveridge 1914, 184-91) |
| Excavation (1912): | Of the castle (Beveridge 1914, 184-91) |
| Excavation (1950): | Of the castle (Simpson 1954; 1960); Archive by F T Wainwright held by RCAHMS |
| Excavation (1951): | Of the castle (Simpson 1954; 1960) |
| Other (1963): | Scheduled |
| Other (1967): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1979): | RCAHMS ABD 521/1 |
| Excavation (1981): | Of the early ditch (Fojut and Love 1981; 1983) |
| Other (2004): | Re-Scheduled |
Entirely occupied by the castle
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 | ✗ |
Enamelled button and wooden ard-point
| 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
| 0: | None |
| 2: | Not known but presumably from the neck on the SW |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
Single bank and ditch of possible early date cutting off promontory; other earthworks probably medieval
| Area 1: | 0.12ha. |
| Total: | 0.12ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| NW Quadrant: | 0 |
| 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 | ✗ |
And ditch
| 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: 1
| ✗ | None |
Beveridge, W (1914) 'Notes on excavations at Dundargue Castle, Aberdeenshire, and on a stone circle and grave at New Deer, Aberdeenshire'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 48 (1913-14), 184-92
Fojut and Love, N and P (1981) 'Dundarg (Aberdour p): castle and fort'. Disc Exc Scot (1981), 11
Fojut and Love, N and P (1983) 'The defences of Dundarg Castle, Aberdeenshire'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 113 (1983), 449-56
Simpson, W D (1954) Dundarg Castle: a history of the site and a record of the excavations in 1950 and 1951, Aberdeen University Studies 131 (1954). Edinburgh
Simpson, W D (1960) 'Dundarg Castle reconsidered'. Trans Buchan Fld Club 17 (1960), 9-25
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