Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: The West of Scotland Archaeology Service 3326 (None)
NMR: NR 71 SW 7 (38734)
SM: 3618
NGR: NR 7398 1084
X: 173980 Y: 610840 (OSGB36)
This enclosure, which encircles an oval hillock in open moorland, was identified in 1957 by RCAHMS investigators as the possible marker trench for the rampart of a fort that was never followed through to completion. Oval on plan, the perimeter comprises a rock-cut-trench some 0.9m in breadth by 0.3m in depth, with traces of a low external bank of upcast, which encloses an area measuring about 65m from ENE to WSW by 45m transversely (0.22ha). Shallow quarries have destroyed short sections of the trench on the E and SE, while OS investigators thought that a well-defined gap on the W possibly marked the position of an entrance. A section cut across the trench in 1965 failed to detect any evidence of packing stones to support a timber palisade, thus leading to its interpretation as a marker trench for a rampart that was never constructed. In practice, evidence of such markers on convincing examples of unfinished forts in Scotland is by and large lacking, and given the complete absence of any other construction works here, it is impossible to sustain this interpretation at Glenehervie. Despite the evidence of the excavated section, this is far more likely to be the remains of a palisade trench, albeit that such features are exceptionally rare as surface features outside the Border Counties.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Unconfirmed
X: -619579 Y: 7428040 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -5.565775314680439 Latitude: 55.339516044888626 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Argyll & Bute
Historic County: Argyll
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Southend
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: 150.0m
N/A
There are neither stratified artefacts nor radiocarbon dates to provide a chronology for the perimeter
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | Quarrying and possibly cultivation. |
First identified by RCAHMS in 1955 as part of the Survey of Marginal Lands, a trial trench was cut across the perimeter in 1965 during the preparation of the County Inventory for Argyll (RCAHMS 1971, 98-9, no.251, fig 111). While the measurements given in the Inventory are 70m by 49m, probably converted from the Imperial scale of the plan drawn up in 1956, satellite imagery indicates that this overstates the area of the interior by about 5m in both dimensions.
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1955): | RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands |
| Earthwork Survey (1956): | Plan and description (RCAHMS AGD 206/1) |
| Excavation (1965): | Description and trial trench (RCAHMS 1971, 98-9, no.251, fig 111; RCAHMS AGD 206/2) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1977): | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1997): | Scheduled |
Featureless
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
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✓ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 3: | None |
| 2: | Suggested by the OS |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (West): | None |
Single trench
| Area 1: | 0.22ha. |
| Total: | 0.22ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| NW Quadrant: | 1 |
| Total: | 1 |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✓ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
Supposedly a marker trench, but there is no evidence to support this interpretation, and superficially it is more akin to palisade trench, though a trial trench failed to reveal any packing.
| None | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank | ✗ |
| Stone Wall | ✗ |
| Rubble | ✗ |
| Wall-walk | ✗ |
| Evidence of Timber | ✗ |
| Vitrification | ✗ |
| Other Burning | ✗ |
| Palisade | ✓ |
| Counter Scarp Bank | ✗ |
| Berm | ✗ |
| Unfinished | ✓ |
| Other | ✗ |
Silted rock-cut trench, in which no evidence of stone packing was found, leading to its identification as the marker for a rampart that was never built.
| 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 |
RCAHMS (1971) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Argyll: an inventory of the ancient monuments, volume 1: Kintyre. 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