LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Dumfries & Galloway MDG7951 (None)
NMR: NY 38 NW 8 (67649)
SM: 12740
NGR: NY 3385 8782
X: 333850 Y: 587820 (OSGB36)
On the summit of Craig Hill there is a small fortified enclosure, with an unusual outer earthwork drawn round its SW quarter. The enclosure on the summit is roughly oval on plan and measures 42m from NNW to SSE by a maximum of 36m transversely (0.1ha) within a robbed stone wall 3.1m in thickness. The entrance is on the W and is approached by a revetted trackway, but this feature may have been constructed to improve the access for stone robbing rather than as the original approach to the entrance. At the centre of the interior there is a house platform 6.5m in diameter and several other low scarps probably indicate the positions of others. The outer earthwork extends in an arc round the SW flank from a point 34m to the S of the inner wall and peters out 21m W of the entrance. It comprises a bank up to 5m in thickness by 0.7m in height, fronted by an irregular ditch up to 5m in breadth by 0.6m in depth; there is a causeway across the ditch on the WSW. The purpose of this outer earthwork is unclear: while it is conceivably an unfinished fortification, there is equally little evidence to suggest that it was ever intended as a complete circuit. Neither is it convincing as the remains of some kind of annexe, the bank simply petering out at both ends some way beyond the last glimpse of the ditch.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -338446 Y: 7396929 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.040310698406901 Latitude: 55.180256366845995 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Dumfries & Galloway
Historic County: Dumfriesshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Westerkirk
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: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | Small pen built over the outer earthwork on the WSW |
Probably the fort shown on William Crawford's Map of Dumfries-shire (1804), it was depicted in 1857 on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Dumfriesshire 1862, sheet 45.2), and visited in 1912 by Alexander Curle during the preparation of the County Inventory for Dumfriesshire (RCAHMS 1920, 215, no.637). It was revisited by RCAHMS in 1955 and subsequently surveyed by George Jobey in 1969 (Jobey 1971, 93, fig 13). The OS visited in 1979, and the RCAHMS again in 1980, carrying out a new survey in 1992. It was Scheduled in 1986, and re-Scheduled with a larger area in 2010.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1804): | William Crawford, Map of Dumfries-shire (1804) |
| Other (1857): | Annotated Fort on the on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Dumfriesshire 1862, sheet 45.2) |
| Other (1912): | Description |
| Other (1955): | Description during RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands |
| Earthwork Survey (1969): | George Jobey (copies in RCAHMS DFD 277/1-2 P/CO) |
| Other (1979): | Surveyed at 1:10.000 by the OS |
| Other (1986): | Scheduled |
| Earthwork Survey (1992): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1997, 131, fig 126; RCAHMS DC 32452 & SC1352947; DC32629) |
| Other (2010): | Scheduled |
At least one house platform in the inner 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 | ✗ |
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 (West): | None |
Inner stone-walled enclosure, with outer rampart and ditch in the SW Quarter
| Area 1: | 0.1ha. |
| Total: | 0.1ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.6ha.
None
| ✗ | Overall is a projected circuit for the outer earthwork |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 1 |
| Total: | 2 |
| Partial Univallate | ✓ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✓ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
The outer enclosure peters out and is possibly 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 |
| ✓ | In the outer earthwork |
Number of Ditches: 1
| ✗ | The outer earthwork is unconvincing as the remains of an annexe. |
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) 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