LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Dumfries & Galloway MDG2772 (None)
NMR: NX 43 SE 1 (63134)
SM: 1956
NGR: NX 4553 3415
X: 245530 Y: 534150 (OSGB36)
The earthworks of this promontory work almost certainly represent several periods of construction, though the precise sequence and their date are not known, and nor their relationship to the ditch cutting off the adjacent promontory to the E. The axis of the promontory itself lies NE and SW, projecting at an angle from this generally S-facing coast in such a way that the defences have been drawn across the relatively level line of approach from the NE to swing round its sloping N flank to meet the cliff-line on the NW; the NW sector however, has been mutilated by a quarry dug at some time between 1955 and 1973 and little more than the innermost rampart is visible here. This latter measures up to 1.6m in height and is accompanied by an external ditch up to 6m in breadth by 1.5m in depth where it is cut through the spine of the promontory on the NE adjacent to a causeway approaching a gap in the rampart. As it appears today, this causeway is a built trackway up to 5m wide, which rides over all the defences and is shown on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Wigtownshire 1850, sheet 37)extending a further 30m into the field on the NE, suggesting that the gap in the innermost rampart is secondary; on a plan drawn up by RCAHMS in 1955, another entrance is shown through both the inner and outermost defences in the mutilated area adjacent to the cliff-edge on the NW. In the levelled sector on the NW, the ditch accompanying this outermost rampart was up to 9m in breadth, narrowing to 6m where it crosses the promontory on the NE. The rampart now forms a low bank no more than 3m in breadth, and seems to cut across the line of a medial rampart with an external ditch that can also be seen cutting across the promontory beneath the stone field dyke on the NE; the best preserved length of this rampart is a tump between the cliff-edge and the S side of the causeway of the secondary trackway. The interior, which measures a maximum of 40m in length from NE to SW by 18m transversely (0.06ha) is featureless, but with the evident complexity in the sequence of construction either of the outer ramparts may have acted as an independent enclosure; the outermost took in a total area of 0.2ha.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -489516 Y: 7299751 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -4.397400973644927 Latitude: 54.678674558838814 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Dumfries & Galloway
Historic County: Wigtownshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Whithorn
Sector quarried
| 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: 35.0m
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 |
Depicted in 1849 on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Wigtownshire 1850, sheet 37), the plan was revised for the 25-inch map in 1895 (Wigtownshire 1895, 35.16), and though this resolved the form of the defences, it was only at the expense of the trackway shown approaching from the NE. A plan and description were drawn up in 1911 for the County Inventory of Wigtownshire (RCAHMS 1912, 174-5, no.497, fig 116), and in 1955 RCAHMS surveyed a new plan. The OS visited re-surveyed the fort at 1:2500 in 1973, and in 1996 a survey was prepared as part of a coastal erosion evaluation (Toolis 2003, 48-9, fig 7). It was Scheduled in 1995.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1849): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Wigtownshire 1850, sheet 37) |
| Other (1895): | depiction 25-inch map (Wigtownshire 1895, 35.16) |
| Earthwork Survey (1911): | and description (RCAHMS 1912, 174-5, no.497, fig 116) |
| Earthwork Survey (1955): | Plan and description during RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (RCAHMS WGD 5/1-2) |
| Other (1973): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1995): | Scheduled |
| Earthwork Survey (1996): | Toolis 2003, 48-9, fig 7 |
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: | The prominent gap in the innermost rampart is almost certainly secondary. |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North west): | None |
Up to three ramparts with external ditches cutting off the promontory, but possibly representing three separate periods of enclosure.
| Area 1: | 0.06ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.2ha. |
| Total: | 0.2ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.3ha.
None
| ✓ | If an independent enclosure the area within outermost rampart extends to 0.2ha |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| 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 |
| ✓ | None |
Number of Ditches: 3
| ✗ | None |
Feachem (1963) Guide to Prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London (p 159).
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