Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Comhairle nan Eilean Siar - Western Isles Sites and Monuments Record MWE10074 (None)
NMR: NF 77 NW 8 (10074)
SM: 5248
NGR: NF 7317 7680
X: 73170 Y: 876800 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on a precipitous promontory to the ENE of Griminish Point on the NW corner of North Uist. Bounded on both the NE and SW by cliffs dropping into deep chasms running out to the sea on the NW, the seaward side of the saddle that forms the neck is defended by a single wall drawn in a shallow arc eastwards from the cliff-edge on the SW to peter out on a steep slope above the cliffs on the NE; up to 2.7m in thickness, the wall is some 120m in length and the interior measures about 130m from NW to SE by 80m transversely (0.09ha). The entrance pierces the wall towards the SW end in a shallow curve to form a passage 4.5m in length by 1.5m in breadth, and when described by RCAHMS investigators in 1914 it not only retained the foundations of its faces on either side, but they turned outwards at the outer end to pick up the line of the outer face; the latter could then be traced eastwards for almost 20m. The inner end of the passageway is partly blocked now with boulders, but at the time that the RCAHMS account was written two of these stood upright to the E of the passage, the taller being some 1.3m high. A rectilinear structure about 3m across internally has been built against the inner edge of the wall to the E of the entrance, and what may be a small pen has been constructed in the saddle on the SE.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -832995 Y: 7896663 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -7.482924978042883 Latitude: 57.662077255898126 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Western Isles
Historic County: Inverness-shire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: North Uist
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: 15.0m
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: | Marker cairn built on the summit |
None
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1876): | Named in Gothic type on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Inverness Hebrides 1881, sheet 29.8, North Uist) |
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1911): | Description and photograph by Erskine Beveridge (1911, 195-6) |
| Other (1914): | Description (RCAHMS 1928, 60, no.190) |
| Other (1965): | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1991): | Scheduled |
Apart from the rectilinear structure built against the wall, which was identified in 1914 as a hut-circle and it was suggested others were hidden in the rubble of the wall to the E, the interior is 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
| 1: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Passage-way/Corridor (South east): | Forms oblique curve eastwards through the wall |
Single wall cutting off a promontory
| Area 1: | 0.9ha. |
| Total: | 0.9ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | The interior tails of into additional rocky terraces dropping down to the sea on the NW |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| 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 |
Beveridge, E (1911) North Uist: its archaeology and topography, with notes upon the early history of the Outer Hebrides. Edinburgh
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London (p 140-1)
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