Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust MPK4823 (None)
NMR: NO 23 SW 1 (30660)
SM: 1595
NGR: NO 2139 3167
X: 321390 Y: 731670 (OSGB36)
The fort on Dunsinane Hill, with the popularisation of its historical associations courtesy of Shakespeare's Macbeth, has long caught the antiquarian imagination, possibly appearing on Timothy Pont's map of Lower Angus and Perthshire east of the Tay (1583-96) and named Macbeth's Castle on Stobie's map of The counties of Perth and Clackmannan (1783). The defences comprise two major elements: a small heavily defended enclosure on the very summit of the hill; and a large outer enclosure not only taking in the upper shoulders of the hill but also a lower terrace on the SE flank. The summit enclosure, which is disfigured by the excavations of James Playfair in 1799 and Mr Nairne in 1854, measures about 52m from ESE to WNW by 25m transversely (0.01ha) within a wall that may be as much as 9m in thickness, and Playfair located its face standing up to 1.8m high (Robertson 1799, 570). Two concentric outer ramparts can also be seen, and the entrance is apparently on the NE where a trackway mounts the slope obliquely to expose the lefthand side of the visitor. On the N, however, the outer of these defences also blocks an earlier trackway, which climbs the slope through an original entrance in the larger outer enclosure, not only indicating that the latter is the earlier, but possibly also indicating that the present configuration of the inner defences was imposed on an earlier scheme. Numerous bits of vitrified stone are strewn around the inner defences, but none of it is in situ, and it is unclear whether this material comes from the burning of the visible defences or from the hypothetical earlier fort; three loose pieces were also identified by RCAHMS on the SE rampart of the outer enclosure, which if derived from an earlier timber-laced wall on the summit indicates a yet more complex sequence. The outer enclosure is roughly triangular on plan, measuring internally about 205m from N to S by 160m transversely (2.16ha) and in addition to the entrance mentioned already on the NW, there are others on the SW and SE respectively, both giving access onto the lower terrace on the SE flank. That on the SW, is in the W side just short of the SW corner and has a worn hollow immediately within the interior; the SE entrance has staggered rampart terminals and is approached obliquely up the slope from the N to expose the right side of the visitor. Within the interior on this lower terrace there are traces of at least seven house platforms, while on the S a small hut-circle appears to overlie the rear of the dilapidated rampart. The results of the excavations within the summit fort are incoherent, but seem to have included several sunken chambers with collapsed corbelled roofs that were thought to have stood 1.8m high, while in a connecting passage three skulls and other human bones were found (Wise 1856, 96-7). The only other finds were a rotary quernstone and a bronze spiral finger ring (Brown 1872), both now lost.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -364860 Y: 7652681 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.277592366799136 Latitude: 56.47062955882953 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Perth & Kinross
Historic County: Perthshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Collace
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: 310.0m
N/A
Possible documentary record. In the absence of modern 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: | None |
| Other: | Possibly to be correlated with Dunsion in Pictish Regnal lists (Alcock 1981, 173-4) |
RCAHMS holds an extensive collection of oblique aerial photography taken by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme, John Dewar and CUCAP.
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1772): | Noted Thomas Pennant (1776, 178-9) |
| Other (1777): | Noted by John Williams (1777, 51-3) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1783): | Named Macbeths' Castle on James Stobie's map of The counties of Perth and Clackmannan (1783) |
| Other (1798): | Description (Stat Acct xx, 1798, 241) |
| Excavation (1799): | By James Playfair (1819), and a description by J Robertson (Robertson 1799, 569) |
| Earthwork Survey (1834): | Sketch-plan by James Skene (date added in separate hand RCAHMS SAS464, PTD323/1 & SC730420) |
| Other (1837): | Vitrifaction noted (NSA 10, Perthshire, 212-13) |
| Excavation (1854): | Mr Nairne and a sketch by Mr A Stewart (Wise 1856; Brown 1872 Christison 88, fig 42) |
| Other (1861): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Perth and Clackmannan 1867, sheet 87.1) |
| Other (1867): | Vitrifaction recovered by Alexander Laing (Brown 1872, 379) |
| Earthwork Survey (1898): | By Alexander Hutcheson and published by David Christison following his own visit in 1898 during which he too made a plan which is lost (Christison 1899, 85-91, fig 40) |
| Other (1951): | Scheduled |
| Other (1956): | Visited for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (Feachem 1963, 146) |
| Other (1957): | Margaret Stewart notes two hut-circles in the interior to the OS |
| Other (1969): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1989): | Plan and description (RCAHMS DC25087-9 & DP045068) |
| Other (1993): | Scheduled |
| Other (1994): | Visited by the Hill-Fort Study Group |
| Other (2011): | Roman Coin found (Hearns 2011) |
The core fort is heavily dug over, while the outer enclosure contains traces of at least seven house platforms and a single hut-circle.
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 | ✗ |
Corbelled structures found
| 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 | ✗ |
Three skulls, a bronze spiral finger ring and a rotary quernstone. More recently a late Roman coin and a fragment of pottery were found (Hearns 2011)
| 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
| 6: | Gaps caused by antiquarian excavations |
| 2: | Three in outer enclosure; one in the inner fort |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Oblique (North east): | In the core fort. Oblique approach exposing left side, but possibly modern |
| 2. Oblique (South east): | In outer enclosure, with slightly staggered rampart terminals and an oblique approach exposing right side |
| 3. Simple Gap (South west): | In outer enclosure |
| 4. Simple Gap (North west): | In outer enclosure |
Three ramparts enclosing the summit, and one forming an outer enclosure
| Area 1: | 0.1ha. |
| Area 2: | 2.16ha. |
| Total: | 2.16ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✓ | Inner defences overlie a trackway leading up from an entrance in the outer enclosure |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 4 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 4 |
| 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 |
| ✗ | None |
Number of Ditches: None
| ✗ | None |
Alcock, L (1981) 'Early historic fortifications in Scotland'. In Guilbert, G (ed.) Hill-fort studies: essays for A H A Hogg. Leicester
Brown, T (1872) 'Notes relating to Dunsinnane Hill'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 9 (1870-72), 378-80
Christison, D (1900) 'The forts, "camps", and other field-works of Perth, Forfar and Kincardine'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 34 (1899-1900), 43-120
Cotton, M A (1954) 'British camps with timber-laced ramparts'. Archaeol J 111 (1954), 26-105 (p 83)
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London
Hearns, D (2011) 'Dunsinnan Hill, Perth and Kinross (Collace parish), casual find'. Disc Exc Scot, New Ser, 12 (2011), 146
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.
Pennant, T (1776) A Tour in Scotland; MDCCLXXII (2). London
Playfair, J (1819) Description of Scotland Edinburgh
RCAHMS (1994) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. South-east Perth: an archaeological landscape. HMSO: Edinburgh
Robertson, J (1799) General view of the agriculture of the county of Perth with observations on the means of its improvement, drawn up for the consideration of the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement. Perth
Stat Acct (date) Statistical Account of Scotland: Drawn up from the Communications of the Ministers of the Different Parishes (Sinclair, J ed), 1791-99
Williams, J (1777) An account of some remarkable ancient ruins, lately discovered in the highlands and northern parts of Scotland: in a series of letters to G.C.M. Esq. Edinburgh
Wise, T A (1856) 'Notice of recent excavations in the hill fort of Dunsinane, Perthshire'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 2 (1855-56), 93-9
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