Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Angus SMR per Aberdeenshire Council NO34SE0001 (None)
NMR: NO 34 SE 1 (32139)
SM: 138
NGR: NO 3546 4440
X: 335460 Y: 744400 (OSGB36)
This fort stands on the summit of Dennon Law, which falls away steeply on all sides and particularly along the rocky SSE flank. Roughly trapezoidal on plan, it measures 105m from NE to SW along the SE side by 55m transversely (0.6ha) within a rampart reduced to a massive bank some 17m in thickness by up to 5m in height externally. In 2013 RCAHMS investigators proposed that this bank was the composite remains of several ramparts, suggesting that the outer face visible high up on the external scarp of the bank was possibly the remains of the latest, measuring about 6m in thickness and overlying an earlier and much thicker mound of debris. This hypothesis cannot be demonstrated without excavation, but there is no doubt that the crest of the rampart is also crowned by a later wall or bank, which not only encircles the whole interior, but has also been carried across the entrances on the NE and W. Below the entrance on the NE the approach rises obliquely through gaps in three outer ramparts to expose the left side of the visitor. These ramparts, each reduced to little more than a scarp, can be traced round the NE and NW flanks as far as the second entrance, beyond which only the upper apparently continues, taking in a lower terrace on a spur below the summit on the SW. At first sight an annexe to the fort, it has an entrance approached by a trackway on the SW and is possibly part of an earlier circuit enclosing the hilltop at a lower level, perhaps taking in as much as 1.2ha. The interior of the summit enclosure has been heavily quarried, presumably to provide the material for the ramparts, but it also contains the footings of at least two large rectangular buildings, which are not typical of those found in later townships and may be the remains of a medieval caput enclosed within the wall on the crest of the rampart.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -339794 Y: 7676193 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.0524208400397472 Latitude: 56.587117326946334 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Angus
Historic County: Angus
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Glamis
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: 205.0m
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 large rectangular buildings and a later enclosure wall on the line of the inner rampart |
RCAHMS also hold oblique aerial photographs taken by RCAHMS and Aberdeen Archaeological Services
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1726): | Description by Alexander Gordon (1726, 164) |
| Other (1791): | Description (Stat Acct, iii, 1791, 126-7) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1860): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Forfar 1865, sheet 43.7) |
| Earthwork Survey (1899): | Sketch-plan and description by David Christison (1900, 91-3, fig 45) |
| Other (1953): | Scheduled |
| Other (1956): | Description for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (Feachem 1963, 106) |
| Other (1970): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1983): | Description by RCAHMS |
| Other (1995): | Re-Scheduled |
| Earthwork Survey (2013): | Plan and description by RCAHMS (RCAHMS DC57556-7 & SC1362389; GV005323 & SC1362391) |
Featureless apart from the large quarries and the rectangular buildings
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Rectangular structures are almost certainly much later
| 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 | ✗ |
None
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✓ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 2: | None |
| 2: | The third elaborated below, relating to the annexe or earlier fort |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Oblique (North east): | Oblique approach through all ramparts exposing left side |
| 2. Simple Gap (West): | Inner rampart |
A massive inner wall with three outer ramparts around two sides and what is either an annexe or an earlier circuit at one end.
| Area 1: | 0.6ha. |
| Area 2: | 1.2ha. |
| Total: | 1.2ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 1.6ha.
None
| ✓ | Evident sequence though this cannot be fully understood without excavation |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 4 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| 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
| ✓ | There is a lower enclosure taking in a terrace below the main rampart at the SW end, with an independent entrance that possibly indicates that it is the remains of an earlier circuit of about 1.2ha rather than a subsidiary annexe. Its rampart follows an irregular line along a natural break in slope to enclose an area measuring a maximum of 75m from NW to SE by 50m transversely. The entrance is at the SW extremity and is approached by a trackway mounting the slope obliquely from the NW to expose the lefthand side of the visitor. |
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 W (1963) Guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London
Gordon, A (1726) Itinerarium Septentrionale: or A Journey Thro' most of the Counties of Scotland And Those in the North of England. London
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