SC3087: White Caterthun |
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HER: Angus SMR per Aberdeenshire Council NO56NW0017
NMR: NO 56 NW 17 (35007)
SM: 90069
NGR: NO 5473 6607
X: 354730 Y: 766070 (EPSG:27700)
Boundary: ✗
The White Caterthun is one of the most spectacular forts in Scotland, occupying a rounded summit overlooking Strathmore from the chain of hills that includes the Brown Caterthun to the NE. Its defences are disposed in four main circuits, the exact sequence and chronologies of which are not known, despite a progamme of small-scale excavations in 1997 (Dunwell and Strachan 2007). The innermost defences are assumed to be the latest, comprising a massive bank of rubble up to 20m in thickness and from 1.5m to 4m in height, which enclose a roughly oval area measuring about 140m from NE to SW by 60m transversely (0.68ha). The bank of rubble, in which small fragments of vitrifaction have been noted, almost certainly derives largely from a massive timber-laced wall, and though its external profile suggests that it may also incorporate an outer wall, an excavation trench across the broad encircling ditch and counterscarp rampart failed to locate any evidence of structure in the rubble tumbled across the inner lip of the ditch. Rather it uncovered a substantial palisade trench sealed by a deposit of hillwash that also extended down beneath the rubble across the primary fills of the ditch; a further complication revealed by this trench was the presence of a second palisade trench cut through the crest of the counterscarp rampart. This inner circuit is evidently more complex than its surface remains indicate and may represent several periods of construction. The lack of an entrance through the wall is a notable feature, though there is a possibly original causeway across the ditch where the modern path approaches from the ENE. The next circuit down the slope, has been almost entirely robbed of its stones, so much so that an excavation trench on the E could detect no trace of a wall or rampart on this line, but its presence is given away by the consistent pattern of quarrying to its rear, describing a slightly eccentric ellipse around the inner defences to enclose an area measuring about 335m from NE to SW by 210m transversely (5.5ha). One certain entrance can be identified on the ENE, and, apart from three other places where more recent tracks traverse its line, there are another eight gaps in its leading edge corresponding to entrances in what appears to be a later third circuit, six of them where the two follow almost exactly the same contour around the NW quarter. This third circuit of defences encloses a larger area again, taking in a total of 6.6ha lying concentrically around the innermost circuits. On the surface it appears as a rampart accompanied by an external ditch with a counterscarp bank, but a trench cut across its line on the E revealed an outer ditch, and beyond that a palisade trench; a second palisade trench was also found apparently sealed beneath the inner rampart, though it could not be demonstrated that this was not the timber face of the rampart. In all, this outer line is pierced by no fewer than thirteen gaps, and though four of these carry what are probably relatively modern tracks, there can be no doubt that there were originally entrances at regular intervals around the circuit, with a particular closely spaced series around the NW quadrant. The excavators chose to interpret these outer lines as elements of an unitary design, but there is no compelling reason why this should be the case, nor that the outer ditch, traces of which on the SE cross the axis of one of the entrances, is not part of the fourth and outermost circuit that can be traced around the whole of the NW half of the fort, forming an intermittent earthwork comprising short lengths of ditch and elongated pits with the spoil cast down the slope; a second line of pits can also be seen immediately up the slope on the NW. These have been interpreted as the remains of an unfinished line of defence. The final component of the defences, which overlies the third circuit on the NE, is an annexe measuring about 105m from N to S by 45m transversely within a dump rampart with an external ditch; it has a possible entrance on the E. The interior of the innermost circuit has probably been cultivated, but beneath the SW side of a rectangular turf-banked enclosure there are traces of a circular enclosure measuring 37m in diameter within a shallow groove, while immediately to the NE is a second measuring 23m in diameter with in twin grooves some 3m apart; the only other feature here is the mouth of a well at the SW end of the interior. Around the the SE flank of the hill, however, strung out in a row immediately downslope from the counterscarp bank of the innermost circuit, there are eight shallow scoops, one containing traces of a ring-ditch and possibly overlain by the counterscarp bank, which are almost certainly the stances of timber round-houses, though whether contemporary with the fort, or perhaps related to the unenclosed ring-ditch houses visible outside the defences on the E and NE, is not known.
| Citizen Science: | ✗ |
| Reliability of Data: | Confirmed |
| Reliability of Interpretation: | Confirmed |
X: -305297 Y: 7716106 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.742527 Latitude: 56.78404 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Angus
Historic County: Angus
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Menmuir
| Extant: | ✓ |
| Cropmark: | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed: | ✗ |
| Woodland: | ✗ |
| Commercial Forestry Plantation: | ✗ |
| Parkland: | ✗ |
| Pasture (Grazing): | ✓ |
| Arable: | ✗ |
| Scrub/Bracken: | ✗ |
| Bare Outcrop: | ✗ |
| Heather/Moorland: | ✓ |
| Heath: | ✗ |
| Built-up: | ✗ |
| Coastal Grassland: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| 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: ✗
| North: | ✗ |
| Northeast: | ✗ |
| East: | ✗ |
| Southeast: | ✗ |
| South: | ✗ |
| Southwest: | ✗ |
| West: | ✗ |
| Northwest: | ✗ |
| Level: | ✓ |
Altitude: 295.0m
| Boundary Type: | ✗ |
Second HER: ✗
Second Current County or Unitary Authority: ✗
Second Historic County: ✗
Second Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: ✗
No artefacts or datable samples were recovered in the course of the evaluation excavations
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC: | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC: | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC: | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50: | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400: | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800: | ✗ |
| Post AD800: | ✗ |
| Unknown: | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort Activity: | ✓ | At least two cupmarked stones are included amongst the rubble and there are several generally provenanced finds, such as two leaf-shaped arrowheads (Canmore 35046), two barbed-and-tanged arrowheads (Canmore 35045), a flint knife (Canmore 35047), carved stone ball (Canmore 34990), a bronze flanged axe (Canmore 34993) and a stone macehead, that might well be derived from visits to the fort. |
| Post Hillfort Activity: | ✓ | Possible traces of cultivation within the interior of the stone fort and a rectangular turf-banked enclosure |
| None: | No details. |
RCAHMS holds an extensive archive aerial photographs by CUCAP and RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme, as well as the excavation records
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1726): | Noted by Alexander Gordon (1726, 38) |
| Earthwork Survey (1755): | Plan by William Roy (1793, pl xlvii) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1755): | William Roy's Military Map of Scotland (1747-55) |
| Other (1793): | Description (Stat Acct, v, 1793, 150-2) |
| Excavation (1845): | Reported by Alexander Warden as at the Brown Caterthun, but refers to a rectangular enclosure, thus making it more likely that the excavations took place in the interior of the White; his source was by then dead (1880-5, iv, 366-8) |
| Other (1863): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Forfar 1865, sheet 19.15) |
| Other (1882): | Scheduled |
| Earthwork Survey (1898): | Plan and description by David Christison (1898, 256-61, figs 98 & 100; 1900, 100-5 fig 51) |
| Other (1956): | Description for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (Feachem 1963, 106-7) |
| Other (1958): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1967): | Revised at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1980): | Cup-marked stone removed from the inner ditch (Kenworthy 1980) |
| Other (1982): | Perforated stone found in the inner ditch (Sherriff 1982) |
| Other (1983): | Visited by RCAHMS, identifying internal enclosures |
| Earthwork Survey (1989): | Plan and description (RCAHMS DC14827 & SC337176; Halliday 1991, 19-22) |
| Other (1994): | Visited by the Hill-Fort Study Group |
| Excavation (1997): | By CFA Ltd (Strachan and Hamilton 1997) |
| Other (2000): | Re-Scheduled |
Apart from the well and a later rectangular turf-banked enclosure, there are two roughly circular enclosures defined by shallow grooves within the stone-walled fort. Traces of at least eight timber round house platforms, one with an internal ring-ditch are visible on the SE flank outside the counterscarp bank of the innermost ditch, while other ring-ditch houses lie outside the overal area enclosed by the defences.
| None: | ✗ |
| Spring: | ✗ |
| Stream: | ✗ |
| Pool: | ✗ |
| Flush: | ✗ |
| Well: | ✓ |
| Other: | ✗ |
Enclosures and well within the innermost circuit, and other timber round-houses immediately the innermost defences on the SE. Ring-ditch house
| No Known Features: | ✗ |
| Round Stone Structures: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Stone Structures: | ✗ |
| Curvilinear Platforms: | ✓ |
| Other Roundhouse Evidence: | ✓ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✓ |
Probably discovered in 1885 (Warden 1880-85, iv, 368)
| No Known Excavation: | ✗ |
| Pits: | ✓ |
| Postholes: | ✓ |
| Roundhouses: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures: | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| Nothing Found: | ✗ |
| No Known Geophysics: | ✓ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Roundhouses: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures: | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| Nothing Found: | ✗ |
Perforated stone found in the inner ditch (Sherriff 1982). Only one hammer stone and five polishing stones were recovered in the excavations in 1997
| No Known Finds: | ✗ |
| Pottery: | ✗ |
| Metal: | ✗ |
| Metalworking: | ✗ |
| Human Bones: | ✗ |
| Animal Bones: | ✗ |
| Lithics: | ✗ |
| Environmental: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✓ |
Only the enclosures
| APs Not Checked: | ✗ |
| None: | ✓ |
| Roundhouses: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures: | ✗ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Postholes: | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
See main summary
| Total Number of Breaks Through Ramparts: | 29: | In all lines of defence |
| Number of Possible Original Entrances: | 14: | Generalised to 14 in the latest of the outer defences, including a possible blocked entrance in the second circuit. Representing several different phases, the gaps in each line are enumerated individually |
Guard Chambers: ✗
| Chevaux de Frise: | ✗ |
| Entrance 1 (East): | Simple Gap: | A possibly original causeway across the ditch of the innermost, stone circuit, lying upslope from an entrance through both outer circuits |
| Entrance 1 (East): | Oblique: | Slightly staggered terminals in the second circuit immediately up slope from an entrance in the third circuit and suggesting oblique approach exposing left side |
| Entrance 1 (East): | Simple Gap: | In the 3rd circuit below an entrance in the 2nd circuit, but complicated by the terminal of the annexe boundary on the N |
| Entrance 2 (East): | Simple Gap: | In the 3rd circuit |
| Entrance 3 (Southeast): | Simple Gap: | Where a later track cuts obliquely across the 3rd circuit |
| Entrance 4 (South): | Simple Gap: | A faint gap in the line of the second circuit upslope from entrance 17 in the 3rd circuit |
| Entrance 4 (South): | Simple Gap: | In the 3rd circuit below a faint break in the in the 2nd circuit, but possibly blocked externally by faint traces of an outer bank |
| Entrance 5 (Southwest): | Simple Gap: | A gap in the line of the 2nd circuit with a trackway leading down to an entrance in the 3rd circuit |
| Entrance 5 (Southwest): | Simple Gap: | In the 3rd circuit below a possible entrance in the 2nd circuit |
| Entrance 6 (Southwest): | Simple Gap: | A gap in the line of the 2nd circuit with a trackway leading up from an entrance in the 3rd circuit, though this is the line of an approach track in the 19th century |
| Entrance 6 (Southwest): | Simple Gap: | In the 3rd circuit below an entrance in the 2nd circuit and the line of the 19th century track to the summit |
| Entrance 7 (Southwest): | Simple Gap: | In the 3rd circuit and cut obliquely by a later track, giving the impression that the terminals are staggered |
| Entrance 7 (Southwest): | Oblique: | Apparently staggered terminals and pierced obliquely by a later trackway |
| Entrance 8 (West): | Simple Gap: | A gap in the line of the 2nd circuit immediately upslope from an entrance in the 3rd circuit |
| Entrance 8 (Northwest): | Simple Gap: | A gap in the line of the 2nd circuit immediately upslope from entrance 23 in the 3rd circuit |
| Entrance 8 (West): | Simple Gap: | In the 3rd circuit below an entrance in the 2nd circuit |
| Entrance 9 (Northwest): | Oblique: | Staggered terminals in the line of the 2nd circuit immediately upslope from and entrance in the 3rd circuit and suggesting an oblique approach exposing the right side |
| Entrance 9 (North): | Simple Gap: | A gap in the line of the 2nd circuit immediately upslope from entrance 24 in the 3rd circuit |
| Entrance 9 (Northwest): | Simple Gap: | Possibly staggered terminals In the 3rd circuit below an entrance in the 2nd circuit |
| Entrance 10 (Northwest): | Simple Gap: | In the 3rd circuit below an entrance in the 2nd circuit |
| Entrance 11 (North): | Simple Gap: | In the 3rd circuit below an entrance in the 2nd circuit |
| Entrance 12 (North): | Simple Gap: | A gap in the line of the 2nd circuit immediately upslope from an entrance in the 3rd circuit |
| Entrance 12 (North): | Simple Gap: | In the 3rd circuit below an entrance in the 2nd circuit |
| Entrance 13 (Northeast): | Simple Gap: | A gap in the line of the 2nd circuit immediately upslope from an entrance in the 3rd circuit |
| Entrance 13 (Northeast): | Simple Gap: | In the 3rd circuit below an entrance in the 2nd circuit |
| Entrance 14 (Northeast): | Simple Gap: | A gap in the pattern of quarrying for the 2nd circuit suggests an additional entrance here, but it is not matched by a gap in the 3rd circuit |
Massive inner enclosure with outer earthworks and an annexe
| Enclosed Area 1: | 0.68ha. |
| Enclosed Area 2: | 5.5ha. |
| Enclosed Area 3: | 6.7ha. |
| Enclosed Area 4: | ✗ |
| Total Enclosed Area: | 6.7ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 8.9ha.
| Multi-period Enclosure System: | ✓ |
| Ramparts Form a Continuous Circuit: | ✓ |
| Number of Ramparts: | 5 |
| Number of Ramparts NE Quadrant: | 4 |
| Number of Ramparts SE Quadrant: | 5 |
| Number of Ramparts SW Quadrant: | 4 |
| Number of Ramparts NW Quadrant: | 5 |
| Partial Univallate: | ✗ |
| Univallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Multivallate: | ✓ |
| Unknown: | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate: | ✗ |
| Univallate: | ✓ |
| Partial Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Multivallate: | ✗ |
Small pieces of vitrifaction have been observed in the inner wall
| None: | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank: | ✓ |
| Stone Wall: | ✗ |
| Rubble: | ✓ |
| Wall-walk: | ✗ |
| Evidence of Timber: | ✗ |
| Vitrification: | ✓ |
| Other Burning: | ✗ |
| Palisade: | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank: | ✓ |
| Berm: | ✗ |
| Unfinished: | ✓ |
| Other: | ✗ |
Ditches
| None: | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank: | ✓ |
| Stone Wall: | ✗ |
| Murus Duplex: | ✗ |
| Timber-framed: | ✗ |
| Timber-laced: | ✗ |
| Vitrification: | ✗ |
| Other Burning: | ✗ |
| Palisade: | ✓ |
| Counter Scarp Bank: | ✓ |
| Berm: | ✗ |
| Unfinished: | ✗ |
| No Known Excavation: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✓ |
| Gang Working: | ✗ |
Ditches: ✓
| Number of Ditches: | 4 |
| Annex: | ✓ | The N side of this annexe at the NE end overlies the third circuit of defences, though apparently respecting them on the S side and turning to form a parallel alignment for a short distance. The interior measures about 105m from N to S by 45m transversely within a dump rampart with an external ditch; it has a possible entrance on the E. A single trench was excavated across its S side. |
Christison, D (1898) Early fortifications in Scotland: motes, camps and forts: the Rhind lectures in archaeology for 1894. Blackwood & Sons: Edinburgh
Christison, D (1900) 'The forts, "camps", and other field-works of Perth, Forfar and Kincardine'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 34 (1899-1900), 43-120
Dunwell and Strachan, A J and R (2007) Excavations at Brown Caterthun and White Caterthun Hillforts, Angus, 1995-1997. TAFAC Monograph 5. Tayside and Fife Archaeological Committee: Perth
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. LondonHalliday, S P (1991) 'Caterthun Forts', in Pounds, N J G (ed) The St Andrews area: Proc of the 137th Summer Meeting of the Royal Archaeol Inst, 148 (1991), 19-22
Kenworthy, J B (1980) 'White Caterthun (Menmuir p): ring-ditch house, possible: cup-marked stone: vitrifaction'. Disc Exc Scot (1980), 37-8
Sherriff, J R. (1982) 'Survey'. Disc Exc Scot (1982), 30-32
St Joseph, J K (1974) 'Air reconnaissance: recent results, 33'. Antiquity 48 (1974), 52-4
Strachan and Hamilton, R and J (1997) 'White Caterthum (Menmuir parish), hillfort'. Disc Exc Scot (1997), 15-16
Warden, A J. (1880-5) Angus or Forfarshire: the land and people, descriptive and historical (5v). Charles Alexander & Co: Dundee
Atlas of Hillforts: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk/?query=Atlas_of_Hillforts_4166_0%2CMain_Atlas_Number%2C3087
Wikidata: http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q31095663
The online version of the Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland should be cited as:
Lock, G. and Ralston, I. 2017. Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland. [ONLINE] Available at: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk.
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