Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: The West of Scotland Archaeology Service 479 (None)
NMR: NM 42 SW 2 (22003)
SM: 10627
NGR: NM 4127 2363
X: 141270 Y: 723630 (OSGB36)
This small fortification occupies a low promontory, its defences comprising up to four walls blocking access from the S. The seaward end of the promontory terminates in a summit girt with cliffs about 10m high, which makes up the inner core of the fort and measures about 30m from NW to SE by 21m transversely within a thick wall that can be traced along its landward side and onto the NE and SW flanks. This wall is up to 5.2m in thickness adjacent to the entrance on the SSE and retains long stretches of its outer face, in places standing 1.5m high in seven courses. The entrance displays two phases of construction, in its original form expanding from 2.3m wide to 2.7m at a check with a bar-hole set 2.7m back from the outer end of the passage; this was reduced subsequently to 1.2m and 1.5m respectively by the insertion of a block of masonry on the E side of the passage. The second wall extends along the leading edge of a terrace below the line of the inner and includes an entrance that has been blocked, while the third and a short fragment of a fourth extend across the level ground that forms the neck of the promontory. The only features within the interior are two sub-rectangular buildings which, together with others lying outside the defences, have been compared with those found at several late medieval castles (RCAHMS 1980, 80-3, no.143, fig 68).
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -688802 Y: 7625233 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -6.1876174000754744 Latitude: 56.33419119897485 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Argyll & Bute
Historic County: Argyll
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Kilfinichen And Kilvickeon
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: 10.0m
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: | Medieval or post medieval occupation, which may have adapted elements of the defences. |
Scheduled 2003
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1875): | Named in Gothic type on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Argyll and Bute 1881, sheet 106.13) |
| Other (1943): | Description by Angus Graham and Gordon Childe for RCAHMS wartime Emergency Surveys (RCAHMS MS 401/1) |
| Earthwork Survey (1959): | Plan (RCAHMS AGD 630/1-3) |
| Other (1972): | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1973): | Plan and description, reworking earlier plan (RCAHMS 1980, 80-3, no.143, fig 68) |
| Other (2003): | Scheduled |
| Other (2011): | Description of the later buildings by Pennyghael in the Past Historical Archive (2011) |
Occupied by later rectangular buildings
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 (South east): | Inner wall, two phases of construction |
| 1. Blocked (South east): | Middle wall, subsequently blocked |
Up to four walls cutting off a promontory
| Area 1: | 0.04ha. |
| Total: | 0.04ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.12ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 4 |
| SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| NW Quadrant: | 0 |
| Total: | 4 |
| 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 |
Pennyghael in the Past Historical Archive (2011) 'Dun na Muirgheidh, Kilpatrick, Argyll and Bute (Kilfinichen and Kilvkeon parish), measured survey'. Disc Exc Scot, New ser 12 (2011), 38
RCAHMS (1980) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Argyll: an inventory of the monuments volume 3: Mull, Tiree, Coll and Northern Argyll (excluding the early medieval and later monuments of Iona). 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