LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Angus SMR per Aberdeenshire Council NO55SW0001 (None)
NMR: NO 55 SW 1 (34899)
SM: 142
NGR: NO 5141 5353
X: 351415 Y: 753539 (OSGB36)
A complex fort exhibiting at least three phases of construction crowns the summit of Turin Hill, which falls away sharply into crags all along its southern flank. The earliest phase comprises a large oval enclosure measuring about 285m from ENE to WSW by up to 125m transversely (2.9ha) within two roughly concentric ramparts lying some 15m apart, which except for along the cliff-edge on the SSE can be traced round the whole of the northern half of the circuit; there is at least one entrance visible on the N, and possibly a second on the ENE, and there are traces of several timber round-houses within the interior. On the WSW, however, these defences are overlain by the WSW end of a smaller lozenge-shaped enclosure measuring about 30m transversely 127m from ENE to WSW by up to 37m transversely (0.43ha) within a thick stone wall which the pattern of stone robbing indicates was some 7m thick. The position of the entrance is not known, but the central sector of its NNW wall is overlain by the wall of a small circular fortification measuring about 25m in diameter (0.05ha) within a wall up to 4m in thickness by 0.9m in height. This structure is one of three that seem to have stood on the crest of the hill, one 110m to the ENE almost entirely robbed and measuring about 23m in diameter within the robber-trench, and the other 110m to the WSW and measuring about 17m in diameter within a heavily robbed wall; there are also traces of a wall enclosing the area around the latter. This latter and another enclosure visible outside the ENE end of the earlier fort are probably of later date. Several cup-marks have been observed on outcrops within the forts, and there is a cross incised into one of the foundation stones of the stone dyke that traverses them. Large areas along the northern flank of the hill are scarred with millstone quarry-pits.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -311071 Y: 7693198 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.7944001718232427 Latitude: 56.671140188955796 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Angus
Historic County: Angus
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Aberlemno
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: 250.0m
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: | Heavy stone robbing and overlain by ring-forts |
Both RCAHMS and Aberdeenshire Council hold a range of aerial photographs
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1795): | Noted (Stat Acct, xiv, 1795, 602) |
| Other (1842): | Description (NSA, xi, Forfar, 632) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1861): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Forfar 1865 sheet 33.14) |
| Earthwork Survey (1899): | Sketch-plan and description by David Christison (1900, 96-98, fig 48) |
| Other (1942): | Description by Angus Graham and Gordon Childe for the RCAHMS wartime Emergency Surveys |
| Earthwork Survey (1955): | Sketch plan (Wainwright 1956; Feachem 1955; 1963) |
| Other (1958): | Scheduled |
| Other (1958): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1978): | Description by RCAHMS |
| Other (1994): | Visited by the Hill-Fort Study Group |
| Earthwork Survey (1998): | Plan and description (Alexander1998) |
Contains traces of several timber round-houses and overlying ring-forts
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Ring-forts. Shallow ring-groove or ring-ditch houses
| 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 | ✗ |
A stone cup was found within the westernmost ring-fort
| No Known Finds | ✗ |
| Pottery | ✗ |
| Metal | ✗ |
| Metalworking | ✗ |
| Human Bones | ✗ |
| Animal Bones | ✗ |
| Lithics | ✗ |
| Environmental | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
The ring-forts
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
See main summary
| 2: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North): | In the earlier fort |
| 2. Simple Gap (East): | In the earlier fort |
Twin ramparts everywhere except the cliff-edge on the S, and overlain by a later fort with a continuous wall
| Area 1: | 0.05ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.43ha. |
| Area 3: | 2.9ha. |
| Total: | 2.9ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 4.1ha.
None
| ✓ | Inner enclosure, which is itself overlain by a ringfort, overlies the outer defences |
| ✗ | This conflates the two successive forts but omits the overlying ring-fort |
| NE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| NW Quadrant: | 3 |
| Total: | 3 |
| 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
| ✗ | A subsidiary enclosure has been recorded outside the ENE end of the earlier fort. Bounded by an earthen bank up to 5m in thickness by 1m in height, this is likely to be a later agricultural boundary. It encloses an area measuring about 95m from NEE to SSW by 85m transversely. |
Alexander, D. (1998) Turin Hill (Aberlemno parish), hillfort, ring-forts and quarries'. Disc Exc Scot (1998), 11-12
Alexander, D. & Ralston, I. 'Survey work on Turin Hill, Angus', Tayside Fife Archaeol Journ, 5, 36-49.
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 (1955) 'Fortifications'. 66-86 in Wainwright, F T (ed.) (1955) The problem of the Picts, Studies in History and Archaeology. Edinburgh
Feachem, R. (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London
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. Edinburgh.
Stat Acct (date) Statistical Account of Scotland: Drawn up from the Communications of the Ministers of the Different Parishes (Sinclair, J ed), 1791-99
Wainwright, F T. (1956) Turin Hill, Aberlemno and Rescobie parishes'. Disc Exc Scot (1956), 3
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