LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Dumfries & Galloway MDG4211 (None)
NMR: NX 76 SE 18 (64629)
SM: None
NGR: NX 7989 6267
X: 279890 Y: 562670 (OSGB36)
Nothing is now visible of what may be a fort situated on the northern extremity of the broad summit of Camp Hill, a long ridge which falls away steeply on the NW. By 1848-9 its perimeter had been reduced to little more than an arc on the E, depicted on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map as a single rampart (Kirkcudbrightshire 1894, sheet 43.6), but not long after Frederick Coles visited the site about 1891 the OS re-surveyed it for the 25-inch map (Kirkcudbrightshire 1894, sheet 43.6), showing it as an almost complete circuit with a slightly oval interior measuring some 57m from N to S by 50m transversely (0.22ha). This certainly accords with Coles' view that the earthwork was univallate and roughly circular on plan, though he gives a much larger diameter of some 80m (Coles 1892, 135). Although in 1911 Alexander Curle of RCAHMS considered the remains unmeasurable, what he could see of the perimeter appeared to comprise twin ditches with a medial rampart, which, he suggested, may have rested on the lip of the steep slope to the NW to form a D-shaped enclosure (RCAHMS 1914, 59, no.78). The position of the entrance is not known.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Unconfirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -431548 Y: 7351045 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.8766649993163322 Latitude: 54.944205672885985 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Dumfries & Galloway
Historic County: Kirkcudbrightshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Buittle
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: 90.0m
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 in 1848-9 on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Kirkcudbrightshire 1853, sheet 39), it was already heavy degraded by the time of Frederick Coles visit about 1891 (Coles 1892, 135), and in 1911 Alexander Curle considered the remains unmeasurable (RCAHMS 1914, 59, no.78). While the OS revising the 1:2500 map in 1963 detected a scarp up to 0.7m in height marking the E side of the perimeter, by the time RCAHMS revisited the site in 1985 and 1993 nothing was visible.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1849): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Kirkcudbrightshire 1853, sheet 39) |
| Other (1891): | Description (Coles 1892, 135) |
| Other (1894): | Depiction OS 25-inch map (Kirkcudbrightshire 1894, sheet 43.6) |
| Other (1911): | Description (RCAHMS 1914, 59, no.78) |
| Other (1963): | Revised at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1985): | Visited by RCAHMS |
| Other (1993): | Visited by RCAHMS |
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 | ✗ |
No obliques and nothing visible on vertical cover.
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✓ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
None known
| 0: | Ploughed flat |
| 2: | None known |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
One rampart recorded
| Area 1: | 0.2ha. |
| Total: | 0.2ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | Not known |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| NW Quadrant: | 0 |
| Total: | 1 |
| 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 |
| ✓ | Possibly two |
Number of Ditches: 1
| ✗ | 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