Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: The West of Scotland Archaeology Service 2646 (None)
NMR: NR 45 SE 13 (38053)
SM: None
NGR: NR 4674 5133
X: 146740 Y: 651330 (OSGB36)
Situated on the summit of a steep-sided and rocky ridge, this small fortification comprises three elements: a roughly oval enclosure occupying the summit; an outer wall cutting across the spine of the ridge on the NE; this latter overlies the third element, an outer enclosure. The summit enclosure measuring 22.5m from NE to SW by 19m transversely (0.034ha) within a stout wall up to 4.5m in thickness at the entrance on the SSW and has considerable portions of the outer face exposed to a height of 0.8m around the SE quarter. The outer wall on the NE has a probable entrance midway along its length and at its S end probably overlies the outer enclosure. The wall of the latter is reduced to little more than a thin band of rubble, which can be traced along the lip of a natural terrace around the SE and SW and peters out on the edge of the crags on the NW. While the inner enclosure encloses no more than 345 square metres, and thus qualifies as a dun, there is no reason to assume that the outer enclosure is contemporary with it, possibly once forming a freestanding circuit enclosing an area measuring 48m from NE to SW by 34m transversely (0.13ha), and though well below 0.2ha threshold set for inclusion into the Atlas, evidently considerably larger than a fortified building.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -671391 Y: 7496787 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -6.031208880992917 Latitude: 55.68917777614036 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Argyll & Bute
Historic County: Argyll
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Kildalton And Oa
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: 55.0m
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: | Dun occupies the greater part of the interior, and the interior of this is largeloccupied by a mound of stones surmounted by the OS triangulation station and several small structures probably of relatively recent date |
Named as an antiquity in 1878 on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Argyll and Bute 1881, sheet 221.13), it was visited by Gordon Childe in 1934 (Childe 1935, 82), and by the Islay Survey Group about 1959 (Celoria 1959), RCAHMS prepared a plan in 1976 for the County Inventory of Argyll (RCAHMS 1984, 103, no.172), and the OS visited in 1979. RCAHMS took aerial photographs in 1979, while others have been taken by CUCAP.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1878): | Named in Gothic type on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Argyll and Bute 1881, sheet 221.13) |
| Other (1934): | Description Gordon Childe (Childe 1935, 82) |
| Other (1959): | Visited by the Islay Survey Group (Celoria 1959) |
| Earthwork Survey (1976): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1984, 103, no.172; RCAHMS DC192-3) |
| Other (1979): | Surveyed at 1:10.000 by the OS |
| Other (2007): | Visited by the Hill-Fort Study Group |
Occupied by the dun
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Inner stone-walled enclosure or dun
| 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
| 0: | Very dilapidated condition |
| 2: | No entrance is visible in the earlier enclosure |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
single rampart or wall
| Area 1: | 0.13ha. |
| Total: | 0.13ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✓ | For the purposes of the Atlas the interior is taken to be that of the outer enclosure |
| ✗ | The dun and its outwork are excluded |
| 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 |
| ✗ | None |
Number of Ditches: None
| ✗ | None |
Celoria, F (1959) Preliminary handbook to Islay, 7/42
Childe, V G (1935) 'Notes on some duns in Islay'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 69 (1934-5), 81-4
RCAHMS (1984) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Argyll: an inventory of the monuments volume 5: Islay, Jura, Colonsay and Oronsay. 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