Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Archaeological Survey of Ireland SMR Database WI031-047 (None)
NMR: WI 031 (None)
SM: None
NGR: None
X: 733239 Y: 689959 (IRENET95)
This possible coastal promontory fort is located c. 5km SE of Wicklow Town. First revealed by cropmarks (CUCAP BGN11-12), it comprises a single ditch extending from N to S across the neck of a promontory formed between the coastal escarpment on the NE, where it falls away into the sandy bay below Kilpoole, and a shallow stream gully on the S. Since the photographs were taken in 1971, however, the area has changed out of all recognition in the creation of a golf course, and the stream gully on the S has been dammed where it cut down through the escarpment on the E to form a pond. The area originally enclosed at the top of the escarpment can have measured no more than 50m from NW to SE by 45m transversely (0.2ha), and though an eroded finger of land, shown on earlier OS mapping as a hachured mound, extends ENE out into the sea below the escarpment, extending the overall area of the promontory to a maximum of 0.45ha, it contains little usable space and there is little reason to suppose that it once formed a significant part of the interior. There are no recorded internal features. An enclosure lies c. 100m to the SW and there is also large complex of ring-ditches a little further S (Grogan and Kilfeather 1997, 44).
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -669868 Y: 6972622 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -6.017527585029861 Latitude: 52.94386942699143 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Republic of Ireland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Wicklow
Historic County: Wicklow
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Kilpoole Upper
Now largely incorporated into a golf course
| 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 | ✗ |
Traces of a ditch visible as cropmark on aerial photographs on the top of the coastal escarpment, but with a finger of land projecting out into the ea at its foot.
| 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: 10.0m
N/A
There is no dating available for the site.
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | None |
Visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs, the seaward end of the promontory below the coastal escarpment is depicted as an oval, hachured mound on the second edition twenty-five-inch OS map.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1900): | Second edition six-inch OS mapping |
| Other (1971): | Discovered by CUCAP |
There are no recorded internal features
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 | ✗ |
There are no recorded entrances to the site
| 0: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
Traces of a ditch (Wth c.5m) visible as cropmark on aerial photographs extending N-S at the landward side of a promontory in the coastal escarpment
| Area 1: | 0.2ha. |
| Total: | 0.2ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.45ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | Suggested by ditch |
| NE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 1 |
| Total: | 1 |
| 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 |
| ✓ | Visible on aerial photo |
Number of Ditches: 1
| ✗ | None |
Grogan, E. and Kilfeather, A. 1997. Archaeological inventory of County Wicklow, 44. The stationary Office, Dublin.
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