Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Comhairle nan Eilean Siar - Western Isles Sites and Monuments Record MWE21378 (None)
NMR: NL 58 SW 3 (21378)
SM: None
NGR: NL 5485 8057
X: 54850 Y: 780570 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on a promontory projecting from the western cliffs on the sloping N flank of the island of Berneray. The main defence comprises a single thick wall, which faces onto the shallow saddle on the E, cutting obliquely NE across the neck from the outcrops forming the cliffs along the S margin and petering out on the slope that plunges away on the N. The wall displays an unusual style of construction and its faces combine both laid and upright slabs, the latter up to 1.2m in height and mainly occurring where the wall is thickest on the SW; it thins to 2.2m towards the NE. The position of the entrance is uncertain, though possibly marked by two of the upright slabs visible in the outer face and blocked by two small building set against the inner face. These buildings measure 3.8m by 2.8m and 4.4m by 2.5m respectively within wall copsed of a bank with an internal slab face; a transverse slab within the interior of the longer is possibly a partition. These are the only structures visible within the rocky and uneven interior, which measures about 50m from E to W by a maximum of 25m transversely (0.12ha). The only other feature visible is an intermittent line of boulders some 3.5m outside the line of the wall, possibly indicating the line of a robbed out outer defence.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -852136 Y: 7716969 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -7.654867047339108 Latitude: 56.78828981821504 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Western Isles
Historic County: Inverness-shire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Barra
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: 105.0m
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 two small buildings |
Photographed by RCAHMS from the air in 2003 and 2011
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1878): | Named in Gothic type on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire 1880, sheet 70) |
| Other (1915): | Description RCAHMS 1928, 134, no.453 (RCAHMS MS 36/66) |
| Other (1965): | Surveyed at 1:10,560 by the OS |
| Other (1992): | Description (Foster 1992; Branigan and Foster 2000, BY16; 2002, 21) |
| Other (2010): | Description RCAHMS |
Featureless apart from two later buildings
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Later than the wall
| 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
| 0: | None |
| 2: | Not known for certain, but from the saddle on the E |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
Single wall cutting off a promontory; possible traces of an outer line
| Area 1: | 0.12ha. |
| Total: | 0.12ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | Outer line of boulders has not been counted here |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| 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 |
Branigan and Foster, K and P (2000) From Barra to Berneray: archaeological survey and excavation in the southern isles of the Outer Hebrides, Sheffield Environmental and Archaeological Research Campaign in the Hebrides volume 5. University of Sheffield: Sheffield
Branigan and Foster, K and P (2002) Barra and the Bishop's Isles: living on the margin. Tempus: Stroud
Foster, P (1992) 'Berneray (Barra parish): survey'. Disc Exc Scot 1992, 88
RCAHMS (1928) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Ninth report with inventory of monuments and constructions in the Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles. 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