LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Angus SMR per Aberdeenshire Council NO33SE0055 (None)
NMR: NO 33 SE 5 & 55 (31961)
SM: 6561
NGR: NO 3645 3492
X: 336450 Y: 734920 (OSGB36)
Cropmarks have revealed the site of a fort previously annotated in Roman type 'Site of Camp (Supposed Roman)' on the 1st edition of the OS 25-inch map (Forfar 1865, 49.16) and probably the earthwork shown upstanding in this neighbourhood on General Roy's Military Map of Scotland (1747-55). The whole circuit is visible on some of the aerial photographs, variously presenting as cropmarks in wheat or barley and parchmarks in grass, forming a belt 30m deep and comprising four concentric ditches up to 3m in breadth. The plan is irregular, with a rounded W end, but flattened sectors along the length of the N flank and E end, and relatively sharp angles on the NE and SE. The interior, which is featureless, measures about 190m in maximum length from E to W by 110m transversely (1.93ha). At least four possible entrances are visible in the cropmarks on the W, WSW, SW and SE, suggesting that there are probably multiple entrances elsewhere in less well-defined sectors of the circuit.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -337741 Y: 7659025 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.033981041354227 Latitude: 56.502097585872384 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Angus
Historic County: Angus
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Mains And Strathmartine
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: 160.0m
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: | Ploughed flat and was partly planted with trees in the 19th century |
Photographed by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1977 and 1984, and by CUCAP in 1979
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1755): | Shown on William Roy's Military Map of Scotland (1747-55) |
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1794): | Noted (Stat Acct, xiii, 1794, 99) |
| Other (1865): | Annotated 'Site of Camp (Supposed Roman)' in Roman type on the 1st edition of the OS 25-inch map (Forfar 1865, sheet 49.16) |
| Other (1956): | Visited by RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands |
| Other (1958): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1977): | First photographed as a cropmark. |
| Other (1996): | Scheduled |
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 | ✗ |
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 | ✗ |
NO APPARENT FEATURES
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✓ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 4: | ploughed flat |
| 2: | At least four |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (South east): | In the flattened E end close to the SE angle and implying there may be at least one other in this end. |
| 2. Simple Gap (South west): | a bleaching in the crop running up into the interior and conceivable a natural feature |
| 3. Simple Gap (West): | A posssible gap on the WSW |
| 4. Simple Gap (West): | A possible gap adjacent to the modern wall |
Four concentric ditches, presumably with upcast ditches; a fifth line on the SE is slightly eccentric by comparison to teh main belt of ditches and is likely to be a later enclosure boundary
| Area 1: | 1.93ha. |
| Total: | 1.93ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 4 |
| SE Quadrant: | 4 |
| 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: 4
| ✗ | None |
Warden, A J (1880-5) Angus or Forfarshire: the land and people, descriptive and historical (5v). Dundee (Vol. 4, p 297-8)
Stat Acct (date) Statistical Account of Scotland: Drawn up from the Communications of the Ministers of the Different Parishes (Sinclair, J ed), 1791-99
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