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HER:  Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust MPK2416 (None)
NMR:  NO 04 SE 11 (27118)
SM:  6122
NGR:  NO 0671 4066
X:  306710  Y:  740660  (OSGB36)
This small fortification is situated on a rocky spine rising abruptly above the N bank of the River Tay above Stenton. Precipitous on this side, and with a broad gully separating it from the ridge to the NE, the fort is irregular on plan, measuring internally 82m from ESE to WNW by a maximum of 27m transversely at the WNW end (0.12ha). A stony rampart can be traced round most of the summit area, in some places forming a mound spread 4m in thickness by 0.8m in height, but in others reduced to a scarp some 1.5m in external height. Three outer ramparts, each with an internal quarry ditch, cut across the NW end of the spine and the inner of these has also been drawn onto a rocky terrace that runs the length of the NNE flank below the main rampart. This terrace appears to be a cut feature, truncating the N end of a ditch at the SW tip of the fort. The ditch, which is some 4m in breadth by 0.7m in depth, is broken by a central causeway and is assumed to be an outwork to the fort at this end, rather than the perimeter of an earlier promontory enclosure cutting off the tip of the spine. Despite the identification of a 'hut-circle' by Gordon Childe in 1942, the interior is largely featureless and was probably originally entered from the SW.
Citizen Science:  ✗
Reliability of Data:  Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation:  Confirmed
X:  -391735  Y:  7668429  (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude:  -3.5190183606523373  Latitude:  56.54868872420606  (EPSG:4326)
Country:  Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority:  Perth & Kinross
Historic County:  Perthshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland:  Caputh
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:  125.0m
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:   | None |
Post Hillfort:   | Overlain by constructed pathways |
None
1st Identified Written Reference (1777):   | 'Weapons' dug up when the trees were first planted (Stat Acct ix, 1793, 504) |
1st Identified Map Depiction (1783):   | Annotated 'Old Fort' on James Stobies map of The counties of Perth and Clackmannan (1783) |
Other (1864):   | Named in Gothic type on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Perth and Clackmannan 1867, sheet 62.11) |
Other (1942):   | Description by Angus Graham and Gordon Childe for the RCAHMS wartime Emergency Surveys |
Other (1974):   | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
Earthwork Survey (1989):   | Plan and description (RCAHMS DC25085-7; RCAHMS 1994, 51, 53) |
Other (1994):   | Scheduled |
Featurelss apart from constructed pathways
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   | ✗ |
None
No Known Finds   | ✓ |
Pottery   | ✗ |
Metal   | ✗ |
Metalworking   | ✗ |
Human Bones   | ✗ |
Animal Bones   | ✗ |
Lithics   | ✗ |
Environmental   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
Obscured by trees
APs Not Checked   | ✗ |
None   | ✓ |
Roundhouses   | ✗ |
Rectangular Structures   | ✗ |
Pits   | ✗ |
Postholes   | ✗ |
Roads/Tracks   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
See main summary
0:   | None |
2:   | Not visible but probably from the SW |
Guard Chambers:  ✗
Chevaux de Frise:  ✗
Single rampart around the crest, and three others with internal ditches on the WNW, and a ditch on the ESE
Area 1:   | 0.12ha. |
Total:   | 0.12ha. |
Total Footprint Area:  Noneha.
None
✗   | None |
✓   | None |
NE Quadrant:   | 1 |
SE Quadrant:   | 1 |
SW Quadrant:   | 1 |
NW Quadrant:   | 4 |
Total:   | 4 |
Partial Univallate   | ✓ |
Univallate   | ✗ |
Partial Bivallate   | ✗ |
Bivallate   | ✗ |
Partial Multivallate   | ✓ |
Multivallate   | ✗ |
Unknown   | ✗ |
Partial Univallate   | ✗ |
Univallate   | ✗ |
Partial Bivallate   | ✗ |
Bivallate   | ✗ |
Partial Multivallate   | ✗ |
Multivallate   | ✗ |
Grass-grown rubble
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 |
✓   | At one end |
Number of Ditches:  3
✗   | None |
No related records
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