Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: The West of Scotland Archaeology Service 851 (None)
NMR: NM 71 NW 1 (22613)
SM: 4178
NGR: NM 7475 1717
X: 174750 Y: 717170 (OSGB36)
Dun Aorain occupies a precipitous coastal promontory, access to which is blocked by a severely denuded wall about 2.4m in thickness, with evidence of an entrance some 3.2m wide midway along its length. Conventionally interpreted as an outwork to the sub-oval dun on the outcrops forming summit of the promontory on its W margin, the relationship between the two elements is unknown, and the dun may well have been inserted into an earlier promontory fortification. Defined by cliffs on all sides and the wall on the NE, Its interior is roughly square and measures some 40m across (0.15ha). The dun is sub-oval, measuring 17m from NNE to SSW by 12m transversely within a wall of variable thickness, and the entrance is on the E. Excavation in 1970 uncovered steps leading down into an intramural chamber and showed that the dun wall thickened at this point from 4.3m to 5.3m; finds included a few small sherds of coarse pottery, a slate disc and an anvil stone (RCAHMS 1975, 83-4, no.166). RCAHMS suggested that the thickened wall in this sector may have been akin to a blockhouse. The only other feature visible on the promontory is a small, stone-founded, rectangular building.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Unconfirmed
X: -628036 Y: 7617041 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -5.6417442150027055 Latitude: 56.29337492207154 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Argyll & Bute
Historic County: Argyll
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Kilbrandon And Kilchattan
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
There are no radiocarbon dates to provide a chronology for the defences, and the artefacts recovered are not chronologically distinct.
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | probably overlain by the rectangular building |
None
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1871): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Argyll and Bute 1875, sheet 121.7) |
| Earthwork Survey (1888): | Sketch-plan and description by David Christison (1889, 399-400, fig 26) |
| Earthwork Survey (1966): | Plan (RCAHMS 1975, 83-4, no.166, fig 59; RCAHMS AGD 412/1-2) |
| Excavation (1970): | of mural chamber (RCAHMS 1975, 83-4, no.166) |
| Other (1971): | Survyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1979): | Scheduled |
Featureless apart from the dun and a small rectangular building
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
The dun is possibly an insertion
| No Known Features | ✗ |
| Round Stone Structures | ✗ |
| Rectangular Stone Structures | ✓ |
| Curvilinear Platforms | ✗ |
| Other Roundhouse Evidence | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
Empties mural chamber
| 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 | ✗ |
A few small sherds of coarse pottery, a slate disc and an anvil stone
| 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
| 1: | None |
| 2: | Dun is discounted |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North east): | None |
Single wall cutting off a promontory
| Area 1: | 0.15ha. |
| Total: | 0.15ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | Dun wall is discounted from this analysis |
| 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 |
Christison, D (1889) The duns and forts of Lorne, Nether Lochaber, and the neighbourhood'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 23 (1888-9), 368-432
RCAHMS (1970) 'Dun Aorain, Kilbrandon and Kilchattan'. Disc Exc Scot 1970, 64
RCAHMS (1975) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Argyll: an inventory of the ancient monuments: volume 2: Lorn. 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