Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: The West of Scotland Archaeology Service 10959 (None)
NMR: NT 03 SW 44 (48778)
SM: 2648
NGR: NT 0246 3269
X: 302460 Y: 632690 (OSGB36)
The remains of this fort are situated on the summit of Snaip Hill, dominating the saddle that links to the higher summit of Unthank Hill to the SW, and exploiting a shallow gully on the E that separates the summit from the gentler slopes descending towards the Culter Water. Three lines of defence can be identified, and though these may well represent a series of different periods of construction, there are no stratigraphic relationships to demonstrate the sequence between them. The innermost enclosure occupies the very summit of the hill and measures 58m from NNE to SSW by 27m transversely within a wall reduced to a grass-grown band of rubble; gaps on the NE and WSW may be entrances, but a broader gap on the SSW is more likely to be the result of robbing. The second line of defence can be seen cutting across the slope descending SSW from the summit towards the saddle, where best preserved forming a low bank of rubble some 3m thick. On the S it peters out into a low scarp, and though it may have followed the course of the outermost rampart on the E, little evidence of its line can be seen elsewhere. The outermost rampart, however, which encloses a roughly oval area measuring about 125m from NE to SW by 65m transversely (0.6ha), is altogether more substantial, in some places on the N, E and SW forming a bank, and elsewhere a scarp falling into the bottom of an external ditch. The latter is most prominent in the bottom of the gully on the E, where it is at least 7m in breadth and 1.2m in depth, while on the NW and SW it has been reduced to a terrace on the slope below the rampart; this feature is missing only on the SE. The rampart itself follows a natural terrace round the hilltop, forming the crest of the slope dropping down into the saddle on the SSW. In this way, these defences not only enclose the uppermost slopes of Snaip Hill, but control access along the ridge, so much so that the modern track enters through an original entrance on the SE and exits by another on the SSW; a gap on the NE may indicate a third entrance. The entrances on the SE and SSW are both placed adjacent to an angle in the circuit so that the terminal on one side overlooks the entrance way, but whereas at the SE entrance this exposes the visitor's right side, at the SSW entrance it is the left side. The only feature visible within the interior is the back of a single platform on the W side of the innermost enclosure on the summit.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -395044 Y: 7474882 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.5487414233111956 Latitude: 55.578102755857024 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: South Lanarkshire
Historic County: Lanarkshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Culter
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: 362.0m
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: | Stone robbing |
Photographed by CUCAP in 1969 and by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1980, 1991 and 1996, the last under snow
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1773): | Annotated Camp on Charles Ross' A Map of the Shire of Lanark (1773) |
| Earthwork Survey (1855): | Sketch-plan and description by George Irving (1855, 10 pl 2 fig 9; Irving and Murray 1864, pl 2 fig 6) |
| Other (1859): | Annotated Camp on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Lanarkshire 1864, sheet 40) |
| Earthwork Survey (1889): | Sketch-plan and description by David Christison (1890, 313-15, fig 14, pl12 lower) |
| Earthwork Survey (1959): | Plan (RCAHMS LAD 145/1) |
| Other (1968): | Scheduled |
| Earthwork Survey (1970): | Plan derived from 1959 and description (RCAHMS 1978, 106-7, no.238, fig 64) |
| Other (1972): | Revised at 1:2500 by the OS |
Single possible house platform visible within the innermost enclosure
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: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North east): | probably through both the outermost and innermost circuits |
| 2. Oblique (South east): | In a shallow re-entrant formed adjacent an angle in the circuit where the rampart on the N effectively turns inwards. Oblique approach exposing right side. |
| 3. Simple Gap (South west): | A broad gap in a similar location to Entrance 2. Oblique approach exposing left side |
| 4. Simple Gap (West): | A gap in the innermost circuit |
Up to three ramparts, probably representing several periods of construction
| Area 1: | 0.13ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.6haf. |
| Total: | 0.6ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 1.0ha.
None
| ✗ | No sequence of construction can be demonstrated in the surviving earthworks |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 3 |
| NW Quadrant: | 2 |
| 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 |
| ✓ | Accompanying the outermost circuit |
Number of Ditches: 1
| ✗ | None |
Christison, D (1890) 'Forts, camps, and motes of the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 24 (1889-90), 281-352
Irving, G V (1855) 'On ancient camps of the upper ward of Lanarkshire'. J Brit Archaeol Ass 10 (1855), 1-32
Irving and Murray, G V and A (1864) The upper ward of Lanarkshire described and delineated, 3v Glasgow
RCAHMS. (1978) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Lanarkshire: an inventory of the prehistoric and Roman monuments. HMSO: Edinburgh
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