Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust MPK3644 (None)
NMR: NO 13 NW 6 (28598)
SM: 1596
NGR: NO 1152 3930
X: 311520 Y: 739300 (OSGB36)
This remarkable and unusual promontory fort is situated at the extreme W tip of the Inchtuthil plateau. Its defensive lines are massively constructed, at first sight comprising no fewer than five ramparts with external ditches drawn across the promontory in a straight line, to form a close-set belt almost 60m deep that cuts off an area measuring about 80m from N to S immediately to the rear of the innermost rampart by up to 43m transversely (0.3ha). No entrance is visible and the ends of the ramparts have been truncated by landscaping works on both margins of the promontory. On closer inspection, however, the ditch between the slighter second and third ramparts is a comparatively shallow feature, suggesting either that the outer ramparts are an addition to the inner scheme, or that the two inner ramparts with their medial ditch were inserted behind an earlier scheme enclosing an area of perhaps as much as 0.5ha. This junction between the two defensive schemes is clearly visible in the exaggerated section drawn by Thomas Ross in 1901, when a trench was driven through the centre of the defences to reveal other hints of multiperiod construction in the inner defences where the base of the massive inner rampart, which measures some 8m in thickness by 1.3m in height, not only appears to extend beyond the lip of the ditch, but the inner scarp of the ditch displays a stepped profile that is likely to have been created by recuts of its line. In the field there are also traces of a stony bank superimposed on the crest of the inner rampart, though this may be a later enclosure in the designed landscape. The excavation trench was also driven into the interior, revealing an earlier ditch about 4m in breadth cutting off an area measuring about 60m from NNE to SSW by 30m transversely (0.14ha) on the NW tip of the promontory; a palisade trench was found behind it, but this diverged towards the N and may represent yet another phase of enclosure on the promontory. In addition to these earlier perimeters the excavators located an area of paving with a hearth within the interior, almost certainly representing the floor of an internal building. A key discovery of the excavations was that the inner rampart, which would have stood in excess of 6m above the bottom of its ditch, contained large quantities of Gourdie stone that can only have been robbed from the derelict defences of the Roman legionary fortress abandoned about AD 87. The only other find was a fragment of the upper stone from a rotary quern.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -382977 Y: 7666150 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.4403451666088833 Latitude: 56.53740543989546 (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: 50.0m
N/A
While the Gourdie stone in the inner rampart identifies one period of construction after AD 87, the earthworks evidently reflect a longer and more complex sequence of occupation.
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 |
| Artefactual: | The inner rampart incorporates Gourdie stone robbed from the adjacent legionary fortress after AD 87. |
Thomas Pennant also visits in 1772, publishing a plan that seems clearly derived from William Roy's, albeit that the latter plan was unpublished (Pennant 1777, 68)
| Earthwork Survey (1755): | Plan by William Roy (1793, pl xviii) |
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1757): | Noted (Maitland 1757, 199) |
| Earthwork Survey (1780): | Plan of the plateau by J McComic (Original Perth Museum and Art Gallery; Copy held RCAHMS PTD 220/5 P) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1783): | Depicted as a 4-square camp, but possibly the fortress misplaced by James Stobie's map of The counties of Perth and Clackmannan (1783) |
| Other (1864): | Annotated Tumuli on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Perth and Clackmannan 1867, sheet 63.13) |
| Excavation (1901): | Directed by Thomas Ross for the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (Abercromby, Ross and Anderson, 1902, 230-40) |
| Earthwork Survey (1901): | Plan by Thomas Ross (Abercromby, Ross and Anderson, 1902, 230-40, fig 19) |
| Other (1936): | Scheduled |
| Other (1957): | Noted during RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (Feachem 1963, 147) |
| Earthwork Survey (1989): | Plan and description (RCAHMS DC 25087; DC 25090-1; RCAHMS 1994, 52-5, 91) |
| Other (1994): | Visited by the Hill-Fort Study Group |
| Geophysical Survey (2011): | (Morris 2011) |
Featureless
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 | ✗ |
Palisade and an area of paving with a hearth were uncovered in 1901
| No Known Excavation | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
| Nothing Found | ✗ |
several anomalies, but remains unpublished (Morris 2011)
| 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 | ✗ |
NO APPARENT FEATURES
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✓ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
None known
| 2: | Cut at both ends by landscaping works on the margin of the promontory |
| 2: | Unknown |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
Complex series of five ramparts and ditches, probably representing at least two periods of construction cutting across a promontory. Excavation revealed at least one earlier perimeter and other evidence of multiperiod construction
| Area 1: | 0.14ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.3haf. |
| Total: | 0.3ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 1.1ha.
None
| ✓ | The inner pair of ramparts are probably not contemporary with the outer ramparts and ditches |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 5 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 0 |
| Total: | 5 |
| 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: 5
| ✗ | None |
Abercromby, Ross and Anderson, J, T and J (1902) 'Account of the excavation of the Roman station at Inchtuthill, Perthshire, undertaken by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1901'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 36 (1901-2), 182-242
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London
Morris, P (2011) 'Delvine Iron Age Fort, Perth and Kinross (Caputh parish), geophysical survey'. Disc Exc Scot, New Ser, 12 (2011), 145-146
Pennant, T (1776) A Tour in Scotland; MDCCLXXII (vol 2) London
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