LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Dumfries & Galloway MDG7309 (None)
NMR: NY 19 SE 7 (66946)
SM: 8366
NGR: NY 1860 9255
X: 318600 Y: 592550 (OSGB36)
What may be an unfinished fortification is situated on the summit of Castle Hill. It comprises an arc of rampart with an external ditch forming the NW half of a circuit around the lip of the summit, but there is no evidence that this was ever carried around the SE half. Indeed, the rampart and ditch only attain their full proportions on the W quarter, where the rampart is some 8m thick by 1.4m high internally, and stands up to 3m high above the bottom of an external rock-cut ditch 4m broad by 0.4m deep; the latter is also accompanied by a counterscarp bank. While this rampart ends in a bold terminal opposite a causeway across the ditch on the SW, on the N it tails off into low mound, and beyond an undug causeway on the NNW the ditch is much narrower and shallower, finally terminating in a broader pit adjacent to what may have been intended as another entrance on the NE. While the ditch has been begun on the E side of the SW entrance, and material seems to have been piled up to form the E terminal of the rampart, no other work has taken place around the SE half, and though the natural line of the circuit can be projected along the lip of a natural scarp, there is no evidence of any kind of artificial marker. So defined, the interior would have been roughly circular, measuring in the order of 52m in diameter (0.26ha). Although the perimeter does not seem to be complete, there is nonetheless evidence of a settlement of timber round-houses within the interior, the westernmost of which lies in the mouth of the entrance on the SW and measures about 12m in overall diameter; at least two others can be identified, and one of these probably overlies a fourth measuring about 13m in diameter over a shallow ring-ditch.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -365249 Y: 7404773 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.28108943274173 Latitude: 55.22047220591622 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Dumfries & Galloway
Historic County: Dumfriesshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Hutton And Corrie
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: 240.0m
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: | The unfinished rampart was thought by RCAHMS in 1990 to overlie the westernmost round-house |
| Post Hillfort: | None |
First depicted in 1857 on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Dumfriesshire 1861, sheet 34.7), it was visited by Alexander Curle in 1912 during the preparation of the County Inventory for Dumfriesshire (RCAHMS 1920, 108, no.289). It was surveyed by George Jobey in 1968 (Jobey 1971, 95, fig 14). It was re-surveyed by the OS at 1:2500 in 1972, and revisited in 1978. RCAHMS prepared a more detailed survey in 1990 (RCAHMS 1997, 141, fig 141) and it was Scheduled in 2002.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1857): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Dumfriesshire 1861, sheet 34.7) |
| Other (1912): | Description (RCAHMS 1920, 108, no.289) |
| Earthwork Survey (1968): | George Jobey (Copies in RCAHMS DFD 339/1-3 P/CO) |
| Other (1972): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1978): | Surveyed at 1:10.000 by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1990): | 1:500 (RCAHMS 1997, 141, fig 141; RCAHMS DC32369 and SC1346219 ) |
| Other (2002): | Scheduled |
At least four timber round-houses, two of which were evidently built successively
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Ring-grooves. Ring-ditch house
| 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
| 3: | Unfinished so a large gap of half the circuit, and also a causeway across the ditch on the NNW |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North east): | None |
| 2. Simple Gap (South west): | None |
Single rampart with external ditch and counterscarp bank
| Area 1: | 0.26ha. |
| Total: | 0.26ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.48ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 1 |
| Total: | 1 |
| Partial Univallate | ✓ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
Defences appear unfinished
| 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 |
| ✓ | Incomplete |
Number of Ditches: 1
| ✗ | None |
Jobey, G (1971) 'Early settlements in eastern Dumfriesshire'. Trans Dumfriesshire Galloway Natur Hist Antiq Soc, 3 Ser, 48 (1971), 78-105
RCAHMS (1920) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Seventh Report with Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the County of Dumfries. HMSO: Edinburgh
RCAHMS (1997) Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Eastern Dumfriesshire: an archaeological landscape. HMSO: 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