LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Dumfries & Galloway MDG7317 (None)
NMR: NY 19 SE 9 (66948)
SM: 8364
NGR: NY 1899 9366
X: 318990 Y: 593660 (OSGB36)
This fort takes in the highest part of Rangecastle Hill, its defences comprising an inner rampart reduced to little more than an intermittent scarp around the lip of the hillock forming the very summit of the hill, and an outer rampart encircling its foot. The inner encloses an area measuring about 67m from NE to SW 35m transversely, and has an entrance on the SW with a hollowed trackway dropping obliquely down the slope to a gap in the outer rampart facing southwards. The outer rampart is a much more substantial construction, probably mainly derived from an internal quarry ditch, but it forms a stony bank measuring 6m in thickness by 0.4m in height and is accompanied around the E quarter by a shallow external ditch up to 3.3m in breadth. The configuration of these outer defences at the SW end of the fort is unclear; two concentric stony scarps loop round this end of the fort, and while the inner forms the W terminal of the entrance, neither is carried through to pick up the outer rampart along the N side of the fort. There is also a deep circular scoop within this loop, possibly representing a large house platform measuring about 13m across. Conceivably this arrangement has originated as some form of hornwork, but this in itself would be unique in local forts.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -364602 Y: 7406732 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.275279568760219 Latitude: 55.230508402237156 (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: 285.0m
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 1804 on William Crawford's Map of Dumfries-shire, in 1857 it appeared in greater detail on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Dumfriesshire 1861, sheet 34.4). It was described in 1912 by Alexander Curle for the County Inventory of Dumfriesshire (RCAHMS 1920, 108-9, no.290), and apparently planned, though the plan was not published. It was surveyed by George Jobey in 1968 (Jobey 1971, 86 fig 6), and resurveyed by the OS at 1:2500 in 1972, and revisited in 1978. The fort was surveyed in greater detail by RCAHMS in 1990 (RCAHMS 1997, 139, fig 138) and Scheduled in 2003. The RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme has photographed the fort under a range of conditions on at least four occasions.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1804): | William Crawford's Map of Dumfries-shire (1804) |
| Other (1857): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Dumfriesshire 1861, sheet 34.4) |
| Earthwork Survey (1912): | Description and survey drawing (RCAHMS 1920, 108-9, no.290; RCAHMS DFD 35/1) |
| Earthwork Survey (1968): | George Jobey (Copies in RCAHMS DFD 340/1-3 P/CO) |
| Other (1972): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1978): | Surveyed at 1:10.000 by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1990): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1997, 139, fig 138; RCAHMS DC32407 and SC1351809 ) |
| Other (2003): | Scheduled |
While the summit area within the inner rampart is featureless, there is a possible round house platform within the outer defences at the SW end
The ist edition OS map shows a well or spring about 35m SW of the defences
| 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 APPARENT FEATURES
| 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 west): | Curious arrangement of the ramparts at this end of the fort possibly originating in some form of hornwork |
Two ramparts, though conceivably they represent two separate phases, the inner enclosing 0.18ha and the outer 0.46ha
| Area 1: | 0.18ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.46ha. |
| Total: | 0.46ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.75ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 2 |
| Total: | 2 |
| 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 |
| ✓ | And probably a linear internal quarry behind the outer rampart |
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