LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Dumfries & Galloway MDG7344 (None)
NMR: NY 19 SW 6 (66970)
SM: 653
NGR: NY 1197 9217
X: 311970 Y: 592170 (OSGB36)
The remains of this fort occupy a sloping terrace on the S bank of the Dalmakethar Burn to create what is in effect a promontory fort backing onto the burn gully. The defences of the fort comprise twin ramparts and ditches which have been constructed across the neck of the promontory on the SE before swinging sharply NW down the flank of the promontory, ultimately to return to edge of the burn gully and enclosing an pear-shaped area measuring about 100m in length by 55m in maximum breadth (0.42ha). The defences on the SW flank almost certainly pick up the line of another natural drainage gully, which probably accounts for the way the two ditches seem to have coalesced into a single broad hollow as they approach the Dalmakethar Burn. Where better preserved on the SE, the defences have been considerable, both ramparts measuring in the order of 6m in thickness by 1.5m in height and their accompanying ditches up to 9m in breadth by 1m in depth. The inner rampart, however, has been slighted by the construction of a later settlement in the southern angle of the interior; oval on plan, the settlement measures 37m from NE to SW by 23m transversely within a wall reduced to a stony bank. The main entrance to the settlement is on the S, and possibly reuses an earlier entrance into the fort, though the counterscarp of the outer ditch appears to be unbroken.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -376834 Y: 7403885 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.3851571410778516 Latitude: 55.215920012071706 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Dumfries & Galloway
Historic County: Dumfriesshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Applegarth
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: 120.0m
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: | Overlain by Late Iron Age settlement, and subsequently ploughed down to one side of a post-medieval field-boundary |
First depicted in 1857 on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Dumfriesshire 1861, sheet 34.5), it was described and sketch-planned by David Christison in 1890 (Christison 1891, 247-8), by which time ploughing to the NW of the field-bank that bisects the site had almost obliterated the defences. Visited by Alexander Curle in 1912, a plan was drawn up of the SE half of the fort for the County Inventory of Dumfriesshire (RCAHMS 1920, 6-7, no. 20, fig 10). It was Scheduled in 1964 and re-surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS in 1972, and re-surveyed in greater detail by RCAHMS in 1990 (RCAHMS 1997, 159, fig 165). It was Scheduled in 1964. It has been photographed from the air on at least two occasions in 1949 and 1976 respectively, and under good lighting conditions by the RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1989.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1857): | Annotated Camp in Roman type on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Dumfriesshire 1861, sheet 34.5) |
| Earthwork Survey (1890): | Sketch-plan and description by David Christison (1891, 247-8) |
| Earthwork Survey (1912): | Description and plan (RCAHMS 1920, 6-7, no. 20, fig 10) |
| Other (1964): | Scheduled |
| Other (1972): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1990): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1997, 159, fig 165; RCAHMS DC32363 and SC1346208; DC32616) |
Featureless apart from the Late Iron Age settlement enclosure
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 APPARENT FEATURES apart from the Late Iron Age settlement enclosure
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✓ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 1: | But large sectors are also ploughed down |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (South): | None |
Two ramparts with external ditches on two sides
| Area 1: | 0.42ha. |
| Total: | 0.42ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.94ha.
None
| ✓ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 0 |
| 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 |
| ✓ | None |
Number of Ditches: 2
| ✗ | None |
Christison, D (1891) 'A general view of the forts, camps, and motes of Dumfriesshire, with a detailed description of those in Upper Annandale, and an introduction to the study of Scottish motes', Proc Soc Antiq Scot 25 (1890-91), 198-256
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