Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust MPK3327 (None)
NMR: NO 12 SE 3 (28217)
SM: 6199
NGR: NO 1525 2368
X: 315253 Y: 723681 (OSGB36)
The remains of this fort are situated on the northernmost of the summits making up Deuchny Hill. Roughly oval on plan, but tapering towards the E, it measures about 90m from E to W by a maximum of 40m transversely (0.3ha) within a rampart that was probably once continuous around the crest of the hillock but is now clearly visible only at the E end. Nothing is visible of outer lines of walling identified in 1922 by Thomas McLaren and R Boog Watson on the upper of two natural terraces on the W flank of the hillock, but a ditch some 5m in breadth by 0.4m in depth, with a counterscarp rampart 4.5m in thickness by 0.4m in height, extends round the foot of the slope on the E. A narrow gap in inner rampart on the E probably marks the position of the entrance, whereas a trackway that climbs the slope to the summit on the SW is likely to be more recent, resulting from forestry operations. The interior is featureless, but following a bonfire to celebrate peace at the end of WW1 Watson picked up a stone cup or lamp, several hammerstones, a fragment of probably shale bracelet, a few worked pieces of quartz and flint, and pieces of what he believed was vitrified stone; only the cup survives (PMAG 2164).
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -375657 Y: 7638020 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.374585444319135 Latitude: 56.397810556077616 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Perth & Kinross
Historic County: Perthshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Kinnoull
None
| Extant | ✓ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✗ |
Clearing in coniferous forest
| 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: 230.0m
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: | Planted with trees and site of a celebratory bonfire lite to celebrate peace after WW1 |
None
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1922): | Description by R Boog Watson (1923) |
| Earthwork Survey (1922): | Plan by Thomas McLaren, Burgh Surveyor of Perth for Watson (Watson 1923, 304, fig 1) |
| Other (1954): | Not located by the OS in dense forest |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1963): | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1989): | Description by RCAHMS |
| Other (1995): | Scheduled |
| Earthwork Survey (2012): | Plan (Oxford North 2012) |
Featureless
Although Watson was of the opinion that there were two wet patches within the inteiror
| 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 | ✗ |
Following a bonfire, Watson picked up a stone cup or lamp, several hammerstones, a fragment of probably shale bracelet, a few worked pieces of quartz and flint, and pieces of what he believed was vitrified stone; only the cup survives (PMAG 2164).
| 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
| 2: | Track on the SW probably a result of timber extraction |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (East): | None |
Single wall round the top of the hillock and an outer rampart at the foot of the slope on the E
| Area 1: | 0.3ha. |
| Total: | 0.3ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| NW Quadrant: | 1 |
| Total: | 2 |
| Partial Univallate | ✓ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✓ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
Pieces of what he thought was vitrified stone were picked up by Watson close to the line of the rampart on the NW; they do not survive.
| 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: 1
| ✗ | None |
RCAHMS (1994) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. South-east Perth: an archaeological landscape. HMSO: Edinburgh
Watson, R R B (1923) 'The Deuchny hill fort - the Chalmers-Jervise Prize essay'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 57 (1922-3), 303-7
Watson, R R B (1929) 'The Deuchny hill fort'. Trans Proc Perthshire Soc Natur Sci 8 (1929), 3-7
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