Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Dumfries & Galloway MDG4069 (None)
NMR: NX 75 NE 7 (64482)
SM: None
NGR: NX 7734 5716
X: 277340 Y: 557160 (OSGB36)
This fort encloses the whole of the summit area of Dunguile hill. Roughly circular on plan, the main defences comprise three concentric ramparts, which enclose an area of 2ha, but there are also traces of an outer enclosure, though the remains of its perimeter are very slight, taking in an overall area of 8ha. For most of the circuit the ramparts have been reduced to little more than low scarps and terraces, and in places on the E they have disappeared altogether, but evidence of robbing suggests that they were once more substantial stone structures. The outermost perimeter is likewise of slight proportions, variously visible as a low scarp or a bank 0.3m in maximum height and between 2m and 3m in breadth, but there is no doubt that it is an ancient enclosure: not only is it overlain by later turf field banks, but it has an entrance on the W, matching the only surviving entrance through the inner defences. Both this outer enclosure and the interior have been extensively cultivated, but there are at least six hollows amongst the rock outcrops on the summit that may mark the positions of timber round-houses.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -435716 Y: 7341340 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.9140995686833353 Latitude: 54.89409714513067 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Dumfries & Galloway
Historic County: Kirkcudbrightshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Kelton
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: 195.0m
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: | Post-medieval cultivation and field-banks |
Annotated on John Ainslie's map of The Stewartry of Kirkcudbright (1797), it is first depicted in any greater detail on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Kirkcudbrightshire 1853, sheet 45). Frederick Coles sketch-planned the remains in 1890 (1891, 389-91, fig 30), but failed to recognise the eastern arc of the defences, as did RCAHMS investigators in the preparation of a description for the County Inventory for The Stewartry (RCAHMS 1914, 102-3, no.199). In 1954 RCAHMS returned to survey the fort and the surrounding enclosure, which they had recognised for the first time on vertical aerial photographs. The OS re-surveyed at 1:2500 in 1968. It has also been photographed from the air by RCAHMS in 2001.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1797): | John Ainslie's map of The Stewartry of Kirkcudbright (1797) |
| Other (1849): | Annotated Camp on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Kirkcudbrightshire 1853, sheet 45) |
| Earthwork Survey (1891): | Description and sketch-plan (Coles 1891, 389-91, fig 30) |
| Other (1911): | Description (RCAHMS 1914, 102-3, no.199) |
| Earthwork Survey (1954): | 1:980 (RCAHMS KBD7/1; DP148844) |
| Other (1968): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
Several possible house platforms
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
| 1: | Large sectors of the perimeter are heavily reduced |
| 2: | Only one known, but others may have been removed |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (West): | None |
Three stone ramparts, plus outer bank
| Area 1: | 2.0ha. |
| Area 2: | 8.0ha. |
| Total: | 8.0ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 8.0ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 4 |
| SE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SW Quadrant: | 3 |
| NW Quadrant: | 4 |
| Total: | 4 |
| 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: None
| ✓ | The outermost enclosure is possibly the remains of a free-standing fort of some 8ha. |
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 (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland, London (p 129)
Feachem, R (1965) The North Britons: the prehistory of a Border people, London (p 170)
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