LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Dumfries & Galloway MDG3971 (None)
NMR: NX 74 NE 1 (64381)
SM: 1071
NGR: NX 7522 4972
X: 275220 Y: 549720 (OSGB36)
This small fortified enclosure occupies a steep-sided hillock on a SW-facing hillside. The elongated flat top of the hillock, which measures 65m from NNE to SSW by 23m transversely (0.17ha), is enclosed by a stone rampart, though this is largely incorporated into a scarp about 3m high that drops down into the bottom of a concentric external rock-cut ditch about 4m broad. This latter extends round all sides except the steepest, SE, flank of the hillock and is accompanied by a counterscarp rampart which forms a substantial bank at the NE and SW ends, at the latter accentuated by the presence of a short length of outer ditch and yet another bank. The entrance is midway along the NW side. On the NW side of the interior, placed to either side of the entrance, aerial photographs reveal possible traces of grooves indicating the positions of timber round-houses.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -439035 Y: 7328314 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.943916861022228 Latitude: 54.82675072016906 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Dumfries & Galloway
Historic County: Kirkcudbrightshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Rerrick
None
| 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: 135.0m
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 OS 6-inch map (Kirkcudbrightshire 1854, sheet 51), it was sketch-planned by Frederick Coles in 1890 (1891, 368-9, fig 12), and a description appears in the County Inventory for The Stewartry (RCAHMS 1914, 236-7, no.416). It was visited again by RCAHMS in 1952 and re-surveyed by the OS at 1:2500 in 1971. Photographed by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1987 and 2001.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1849): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Kirkcudbrightshire 1854, sheet 51) |
| Earthwork Survey (1890): | Description and sketch-plan (Coles 1891, 368-9, fig 12) |
| Other (1911): | Description (RCAHMS 1914, 236-7, no.416) |
| Other (1937): | Scheduled |
| Other (1952): | Description during RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands |
| Other (1961): | Visit and photographs by Helen Nisbet held by RCAHMS |
| Other (1971): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
Possible traces of timber round-houses.
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Ring-grooves. Possible traces of grooves denoting two timber round-houses on the NW side of the interior.
| 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 | ✗ |
Possibly extent traces of timber round-hoses.
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✓ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 1: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North west): | None |
One stone rampart forming a complete circuit with an external ditch and counterscarp bank around three sides, and an additional ditch and bank at the end facing down the slope.
| Area 1: | 0.17ha. |
| Total: | 0.17ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.44ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 3 |
| 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 |
| ✓ | There is an additional ditch 20m long at the SW end |
Number of Ditches: 2
| ✗ | None |
Coles, F R (1891) 'The motes, forts and doons of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright (part 1)', Proc Soc Antiq Scot 25, 352-96
Feachem, R (196b) A guide to prehistoric Scotland, London (p 130)
Feachem, R (1965) The North Britons: the prehistory of a Border people, London (p 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:
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