Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust MPK3243 (None)
NMR: NO 12 NE 12 (28108)
SM: 3095
NGR: NO 1993 2572
X: 319934 Y: 725721 (OSGB36)
This fort takes in a hillock forming a local summit on the edge of the escarpment forming the shoulder of Pole Hill above Evelick. Pear-shaped on plan, it measures 107m from E to W by up to 78m transversely (0.58ha) at the E end, though the precise course of the inner rampart at this end is uncertain and it may originally have pursued a more direct course across the N spur of the hillock to the lip of the escarpment, where faint traces of a scarp can be detected beneath a later field-bank. On the W and NW, this rampart forms a more substantial bank, measuring up to 8m in thickness by 2m in height externally, and it is accompanied by no fewer than three outer ramparts, the outermost flanked by ditches on either side and accompanied by a counterscarp bank. This is the easiest line of approach and this belt of defences is in excess of 30m in depth, though the pair of ditches and their medial rampart appear to be an addition, blocking an earlier entrance through the inner defences; the inner gap is also partially blocked. Two other entrances can be seen, one via a trackway that obliquely mounts the escarpment on the S to expose the lefthand side of the visitor, and the other between the stone-lined terminal of the belt of defences and the lip of a gully that breaks through the escarpment on the N, in this case exposing the righthand side of visitors; ditch-like features crossing a spine in the floor of this gully are hollowed trackways. The whole fort has been enclosed within a later field and the interior has been cultivated. Nevertheless, the stances of at least four timber round-houses can be identified, the most prominent being a ring-ditch house some 14m in overall diameter at the centre, and others by low crescentic scarps. Apart from the later field-bank, there is a two compartment rectangular structure overlying the outer defences on the W.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -367287 Y: 7641871 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.2993947024252273 Latitude: 56.416950861154625 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Perth & Kinross
Historic County: Perthshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Kilspindie
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: 270.0m
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 a later cultivated field and a rectangular structure |
RCAHMS also hold an extensive collection of oblique aerial photographs of the fort taken by both RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme and CUCAP
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1843): | Noted (NSA, 10, Perthshire, 1164) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1862): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Perth and Clackmannan 1867, sheets 87.13 and 87.16) |
| Earthwork Survey (1899): | Sketch-plan and description by David Christison (1900, 56-8, figs 17-18) |
| Other (1956): | Brief description for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (Feachem 1963, 146) |
| Other (1963): | Revised at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1971): | Scheduled |
| Earthwork Survey (1989): | Plan (RCAHMS DC25083-4; DC25087; RCAHMS 1994, 53, 55) |
| Other (1992): | Description by RCAHMS |
| Other (1994): | Visited by the Hill-Fort Study Group |
| Earthwork Survey (2012): | Plan (Oxford North 2012) |
At least four timber round-house stances, including a large ring-ditch house.
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Ring-ditch house
| 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 | ✗ |
Possibly including example not recognised on the RCAHMS plan
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✓ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 3: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Oblique (North): | Oblique approach exposing right side |
| 2. Oblique (South): | Track. Oblique approach through all ramparts exposing left side |
| 2. Simple Gap (South): | Through single inner rampart |
| 3. Blocked (West): | Simple gap blocked by outer ramparts |
| 3. Simple Gap (West): | Through inner ramparts |
Single complete circuit with outer belt of banks and ditches on the easiest line of approach
| Area 1: | 0.58ha. |
| Total: | 0.58ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✓ | None |
| ✓ | This conflates at least two phases |
| 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 | ✗ |
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 |
| ✓ | Possibly a third and fourth obscured by the position of the ramparts on the slope |
Number of Ditches: 2
| ✗ | None |
Christison, D (1900) 'The forts, "camps", and other field-works of Perth, Forfar and Kincardine'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 34 (1899-1900), 43-120
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London
NSA (1834-1845) The new statistical account of Scotland by the ministers of the respective parishes under the superintendence of a committee of the society for the benefit of the sons and daughters of the clergy. 15v. Edinburgh
Oxford North 2012 Hill-Forts of the Inner Tay Estuary, Perth, Perth and Kinross: Phase Two, Archaeological Survey Report
RCAHMS (1994) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. South-east Perth: an archaeological landscape. HMSO: Edinburgh
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