SC4212: Comar Wood | (Strath Glass) |
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HER: Highland HER MHG55867
NMR: NH 33 SW (314324)
SM: ✗
NGR: NH 3250 3100
X: 232509 Y: 831008 (EPSG:27700)
Boundary: ✗
A dun is situated within a larger enclosure on a hillock forming the summit of a minor spur above the steep hillside dropping down to the NW bank of the River Glass SW of Cannich. Survey and invasive evaluation of the dun has shown that it is oval on plan, initially measuring about 18m by 15m within a wall about 2.2m in thickness, and that it underwent a complex history of occupation, with two phases of burning and reconstruction in which the wall was increased in thickness to a maximum of 4.4m. Two successive central hearths were recorded in the interior and the entrance incorporated a substantial timber structure and lies on the W, facing towards the entrance into the larger enclosure, which measures about 50m from NW to SE by 45m transversely (0.2ha) within a wall largely reduced to a stony bank 2m to 3m thick. Radiocarbon dates place the first burning event in the 4th to 3rd centuries BC; the second occurred in the 1st to 3rd centuries AD, though the date of the outer wall and its relationship to the central dun remain unknown.
| Citizen Science: | ✗ |
| Reliability of Data: | Confirmed |
| Reliability of Interpretation: | Unconfirmed: | Conventionally an outwork to the central dun, but is certainly not a concentric enclosure |
X: -532613 Y: 7829684 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -4.784542 Latitude: 57.3388 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Highland
Historic County: Inverness-shire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Kilmorack
| Extant: | ✓ |
| Cropmark: | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed: | ✗ |
Recently taken out of coniferous forest cover
| 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: 150.0m
| Boundary Type: | ✗ |
Second HER: ✗
Second Current County or Unitary Authority: ✗
Second Historic County: ✗
Second Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: ✗
The radiocarbon dates provide a chronology for the building and destruction of the central dun, but not the surrounding enclosure, whose relationship to the dun remains unknown
Reliability: C - Low
| Pre 1200BC: | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC: | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC: | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50: | ✓ |
| AD50 - AD400: | ✓ |
| AD400 - AD 800: | ✗ |
| Post AD800: | ✗ |
| Unknown: | ✗ |
| Pre Hillfort Activity: | ✗ |
| Post Hillfort Activity: | ✓ | Three later rectangular buildings have been inserted into the interior |
| C14: | Ten dates from a range of contexts |
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1943): | Angus Graham noted that they could not find the fort said to be in the wood (RCAHMS Emegency Surveys) |
| Earthwork Survey (2010): | Plan and description (Ritchie, Taylor and Duff 2010) |
| Earthwork Survey (2013): | (Peteranna, Birch and Fraser 2014, 11, fig 4) |
| Excavation (2013): | Evaluation (Peteranna, Birch and Fraser 2014) |
Featureless apart from the central dun and the three later rectangular buildings
| None: | ✓ |
| Spring: | ✗ |
| Stream: | ✗ |
| Pool: | ✗ |
| Flush: | ✗ |
| Well: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
Later buildings
| No Known Features: | ✗ |
| Round Stone Structures: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Stone Structures: | ✓ |
| Curvilinear Platforms: | ✗ |
| Other Roundhouse Evidence: | ✗ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| 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: | ✗ |
Small assemblage of lithics, fragments of two rotary quernstones, several hammerstones and a possible whetstone, a piece of pumice and bronze sheeting; there was also fired clay waste, iron slag and wrought iron waste.
| No Known Finds: | ✗ |
| Pottery: | ✗ |
| Metal: | ✗ |
| Metalworking: | ✓ |
| Human Bones: | ✗ |
| Animal Bones: | ✗ |
| Lithics: | ✓ |
| Environmental: | ✓ |
| Other: | ✓ |
Still obscured by trees
| APs Not Checked: | ✗ |
| None: | ✓ |
| Roundhouses: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures: | ✗ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Postholes: | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
See main summary
| Total Number of Breaks Through Ramparts: | 3 |
| Number of Possible Original Entrances: |
Guard Chambers: ✗
| Chevaux de Frise: | ✗ |
| Entrance 1 (West): | Simple Gap: | Through the enclosure wall, with some kind of check on one side |
Dun within a larger enclosure
| Enclosed Area 1: | 0.2ha. |
| Enclosed Area 2: | ✗ |
| Enclosed Area 3: | ✗ |
| Enclosed Area 4: | ✗ |
| Total Enclosed Area: | 0.2ha. |
Total Footprint Area: ✗
| Multi-period Enclosure System: | ✗ |
| Ramparts Form a Continuous Circuit: | ✓ | Excludes the dun wall |
| Number of Ramparts: | 1 |
| Number of Ramparts NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| Number of Ramparts SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| Number of Ramparts SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| Number of Ramparts NW Quadrant: | 1 |
| Partial Univallate: | ✗ |
| Univallate: | ✓ |
| Partial Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Unknown: | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate: | ✗ |
| Univallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Multivallate: | ✗ |
| None: | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank: | ✗ |
| Stone Wall: | ✓ |
| Rubble: | ✗ |
| Wall-walk: | ✗ |
| Evidence of Timber: | ✗ |
| Vitrification: | ✗ |
| Other Burning: | ✗ |
| Palisade: | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank: | ✗ |
| Berm: | ✗ |
| Unfinished: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
Pieces of vitrifaction were recovered from inside the dun
| 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: |
| Annex: | ✗ |
Birch, S (2014) 'Kilmorack, Comar Wood Dun, Evaluation and survey'. Disc Exc Scot, New Ser, 14 (2013), 109
Birch, S, Fraser, L and Peteranna, M (2014) Comar Wood Dun Archaeological Evaluation and Measured Survey Cannich, Strathglass, Scotland: Data Structure Report. Unpublished report held by Highland HER
Peteranna, M, Birch, S and Fraser, L (2014) Comar Wood Dun Archaeological Evaluation and Measured Survey Cannich, Strathglass, Scotland: Final Report. Unpublished report held by Highland HER
Ritchie, M, Taylor, B and Duff, B (2010) 'Comar Wood, Highland (Kilmorack parish), survey'. Disc Exc Scot, New Ser, 11 (2010), 97
Atlas of Hillforts: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk/?query=Atlas_of_Hillforts_4166_0%2CMain_Atlas_Number%2C4212
Wikidata: http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q31102560
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.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.