LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Dumfries & Galloway MDG3146 (None)
NMR: NX 46 NW 9 (63516)
SM: None
NGR: NX 4282 6610
X: 242820 Y: 566100 (OSGB36)
This small fortification occupies a rocky hillock at the top of the slope dropping down E into a shallow valley. Roughly circular on plan, it measures about 28m in diameter within a stony rampart which extends round the margin of the hillock. A steep scarp drops down some 3m below this rampart everywhere except the E, and at its foot around the southern and western quarters, from the SE round to the NNW, there is a shallow ditch about 4m broad with a bank of rubble along its counterscarp. The position of the entrance is not known though it may be indicated either by a row of stones observed by RCAHMS investigators in 1911 returning around the terminal of the ditch on the NNW, or the traces a trackway they noted climbing the slope on the E (RCAHMS 1914, 182, no. 339). The interior of the fort, which rises to a low summit within the line of the rampart. has been mutilated by quarrying.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -496123 Y: 7355017 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -4.45675245426095 Latitude: 54.964695922924 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Dumfries & Galloway
Historic County: Kirkcudbrightshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Minnigaff
None
| Extant | ✓ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✗ |
Clearing in plantation
| 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: 60.0m
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 |
Shown and named in 1849 on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Kirkcudbrightshire 1851, sheet 35), Frederick Coles observed little trace of this enclosure about 1892 (1893, 165-6) and the RCAHMS description of 1911 for the County Inventory of Kirkcudbrightshire makes no mention of the quarrying within the interior, though the 25-inch map drawn up in 1894 (Kirkcudbrightshire 1895, sheet 32.14) employs a stoney symbol throughout the interior. The OS resurveyed at 1:2500 in 1966, by which time it lay in a thick conifer plantation.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1849): | Named on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Kirkcudbrightshire 1851, sheet 35) |
| Other (1892): | Visited by Frederick Coles (1893, 165-6) |
| Other (1894): | 25-inch map (Kirkcudbrightshire 1895, sheet 32.14) |
| Other (1911): | Description (RCAHMS 1914, 182, no. 339) |
| Other (1966): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
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 | ✗ |
None known
| 0: | None |
| 2: | None known |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
Inner rampart with outer ditch and counterscarp rampart
| Area 1: | 0.06ha. |
| Total: | 0.06ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | Too overgrown in clearing to estimate. Measurement as noted in 1911 |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 2 |
| Total: | 2 |
| 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 |
Coles F R (1893) 'The Motes, Forts, and Doons in the East and West Divisions of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.' Proc Soc Antiq Scot 27, 92-182).
Feachem, R W (1955) 'Iron Age and early medieval monuments in Galloway and Dumfriesshire'. Trans Dumfriesshire Galloway Natur Hist Antiq Soc, 3 ser, 33 (1954-5), 58-65
Morton, A S (1938) 'Kirroughtree', Trans Dumfriesshire Galloway Natur Hist Antiq Soc 3 ser, 20, 178
RCAHMS (1914) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Fifth report and inventory of monuments and constructions in Galloway, II, county of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, Edinburgh
Atlas of Hillforts:
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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