LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
Scroll left/right to view further images.
HER: Dumfries & Galloway MDG4171 (None)
NMR: NX 76 NW 1 (64588)
SM: 1065
NGR: NX 7432 6591
X: 274320 Y: 565910 (OSGB36)
This fort, which is situated on a low rounded hill, is oval on plan and measures at least 80m from NW to SE by 50m transversely within the inner lip of a robber trench marking the course of a stone wall or rampart set concentrically within an earthwork defence comprising up to three outer ramparts with intermediate ditches. Of the latter, the inner two ramparts, like the robber trench, can be traced round the entire circuit, mainly forming scarps up to 3m in height on the slope, but at the SE end the inner rises into an earthen bank, and likewise the middle and outer rampart at the NW end. For most of its circuit the inner ditch is identifiable only as a broad terrace between the scarps, but at either end it forms a shallow hollow at least 7m in breadth, and where it is most clearly visible on the NW the outer ditch is of similar proportions. The entrance is on the SE. It is not clear whether the stone wall or rampart represented by the robber-trench, the inner edge of which cuts back into the slope to form a scarp about 0.3m high some 5-6m behind the innermost of the outer defences, is part of the same defensive scheme, and it is possible that it stands within an earlier fort of almost 0.4ha.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -441380 Y: 7356421 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.96498719635422 Latitude: 54.97193163015654 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Dumfries & Galloway
Historic County: Kirkcudbrightshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Crossmichael
None
| Extant | ✓ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✗ |
Gorse and bushes growing along the lines of the ramparts.
| 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: 105.0m
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 depicted on John Ainslie's map of The Stewartry of Kirkcudbright (1797), it is depicted in greater detail in 1848-9 on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Kirkcudbrightshire 1853, sheet 39) and sketch-planned by Frederick Coles about 1891 (Coles 1892, 147-150, figs 56-7). In 1911 it was surveyed by Fred Macgibbon of RCAHMS for inclusion in the County Inventory for The Stewartry (RCAHMS 1914, 79-80, fig 64), and subsequently revisited by RCAHMS in 1951 and photographed from the air in 1987. It was re-surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS in 1968.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1797): | John Ainslie's map of The Stewartry of Kirkcudbright (1797) |
| Other (1849): | Named Crofts Moat in Gothic type on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Kirkcudbrightshire 1853, sheet 39) |
| Earthwork Survey (1891): | Sketch-plan and description (Coles 1892, 147-150, figs 56-7) |
| Earthwork Survey (1911): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1914, 79-80, fig 64) |
| Other (1928): | Scheduled |
| Other (1951): | Description during RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands |
| Other (1968): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1995): | Re_Scheduled |
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
| 1: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (South east): | None |
Stone wall or rampart with outer earthworks including at least two ditches with upcast banks
| Area 1: | 0.3ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.4ha. |
| Total: | 0.4ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 1.1ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SE Quadrant: | 3 |
| 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: 2
| ✗ | None |
Coles, F R (1892) 'The Motes, Forts, and Doons of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbrightshire. (Part II)' Proc Soc Antiq Scot 26, 117-70
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