Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Dumfries & Galloway MDG2733 (None)
NMR: NX 43 NE 5 (63095)
SM: 1997
NGR: NX 4853 3718
X: 248530 Y: 537180 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on steep and rocky promontory on the E coast of the Machars, but currently it is entirely blanketed in gorse. The defences, which block access from the W, comprise two elements: an outer rampart up to 1.8m high with an external ditch 7m in breadth, which are drawn in an arc on the landward side of the gully forming the present neck of the promontory; and two inner banks set across the neck to its rear. The outer rampart, which may have been faced externally in stone, has been heavily ploughed down at its S end, but a gap towards the N margin of the promontory, roughly midway along its arc, may mark the position of an original entrance, and there is also a corresponding gap at this point in the innermost. The two inner ramparts have also been ploughed down and traces of cultivation rigs have been noted in the interior. If the three lines represent a single scheme of enclosure, the interior is relatively small, measuring about 36m from N to S by 30m transversely, an area of barely 0.01ha, but the character of the outer, with its broad external ditch, suggests that it may represent an independent period of construction. Its position suggests that the N margin of the promontory has dramatically receded since, and in its original form it may have cut off an area of as much as 0.19ha.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -484517 Y: 7305167 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -4.352487994216353 Latitude: 54.706792861745726 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Dumfries & Galloway
Historic County: Wigtownshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Whithorn
None
| Extant | ✓ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✗ |
Almost entirely clothed in gorse
| 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: 20.0m
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: | None |
First shown in 1849 on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Wigtownshire 1850, sheet 34), it was subsequently depicted in greater detail on the 25-inch map (Wigtownshire 1895, sheet 36.5). Described in 1911 in the County Inventory for Wigtownshire (RCAHMS 1912,177, no.503), and Scheduled in 1939, it was revisited by RCAHMS in 1955 and planned. In 1973 the OS re-surveyed the fort at 1:2500, and most recently it has been surveyed for an evaluation of coastal erosion (Toolis 2003, 52, fig 9). This latter plan and the RCAHMS survey differ in the depiction of the two inner ramparts.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1849): | Annotated Steinhead Mote on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Wigtownshire 1850, sheet 34) |
| Other (1895): | OS 25-inch map (Wigtownshire 1895, sheet 36.5) |
| Other (1911): | Description (RCAHMS 1912,177, no.503) |
| Other (1939): | Scheduled |
| Earthwork Survey (1955): | Plan and description during RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (RCAHMS WGD 20/1-2) |
| Other (1973): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1997): | Toolis 2003, 52, fig 9 |
Featureless
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 | ✗ |
None
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✓ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 2: | Southern is the result of cultivation |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (West): | None |
Up to three ramparts blocking access to the promontory from the W
| Area 1: | 0.1ha. |
| Total: | 0.1ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.3ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 3 |
| 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: 1
| ✗ | None |
RCAHMS (1912) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Fourth report and inventory of monuments and constructions in Galloway, 1, county of Wigtown, Edinburgh
Toolis, R (2003) 'A study of the promontory forts of the north Solway coast'. Trans Dumfriesshire Galloway natur Hist Antiq Soc 3 Ser, 77, 37-78.
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