Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Comhairle nan Eilean Siar - Western Isles Sites and Monuments Record MWE149354 (None)
NMR: NB 14 NE 3 (223931)
SM: None
NGR: NB 1869 4500
X: 118690 Y: 945000 (OSGB36)
This large precipitous promontory, which is configured in a double hammerhead with a huge bight with sheer cliffs up to 60m high eroded out of its W flank, is defended by a single stone wall on the seaward side of the deep cleft that connects it to the mainland on the E. Measuring about 50m in length, the wall is drawn in a shallow arc from the lip of the cliff facing into the cleft on the N and along the crest of the outcrops dropping down the slope to the S cliffs. The wall is probably no more than 1.5m in thickness and comprises mainly an outer face of large coursed blocks. The entrance is probably towards the N end, where rocky shelf mounts the slope to an ill-defined gap in the line of the wall adjacent to a natural rock-face. The wall utilises such rock-faces all along its length to enhance its stature. Most of the interior, which extends to a total area of about 2ha, is rocky and inhospitable, particularly out across the neck connecting to the outer hammerhead on the NW, but the neck itself has several grassy terraces, as has the southern slope of the inner end of the promontory. This essentially follows the dip of the underlying strata down towards the sea, and while most of the terraces appear to be natural, one towards the upper end of the slope forms a shallow scoop about 7m in diameter, while a natural terrace lower down provides a stance for a small setting of stones about 3m in diameter; this structure was the site of a small evaluation trench dug in 1995 (Burgess and Gilmour 1995).
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -757413 Y: 8031296 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -6.803954144980385 Latitude: 58.30326426601319 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Western Isles
Historic County: Ross-shire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Uig
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: 64.0m
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: | None |
None
| Earthwork Survey (1995): | Plan and description (Burgess and Gilmour 1995; Burgess 1999, 100). Dimensions given for the wall are twice actual size. |
| Other (2005): | Description by Simon Gilmour for RCAHMS |
| Other (2014): | Description in the field by S Halliday |
Largely featureless, but one possible artificial platform and the footing of a small circular structure.
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 | ✗ |
Pit under the wall of the structure
| 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. Simple Gap (South east): | None |
Single wall across a promontory
| Area 1: | 2.0ha. |
| Total: | 2.0ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | 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 | ✗ |
Evaluation over structure within the interior
| 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 |
Burgess and Gilmour, C and S (1995) 'Garenin, Carloway, Isle of Lewis (Uig parish), stills; promontory fort; corn-drying kiln; cairn'. Disc Exc Scot (1995), 112
Burgess, C (1999) 'Promontory enclosures on the Isle of Lewis, the Western Isles, Scotland'. In Frodsham, P, Topping, P and Cowley, D 1999 'We were always chasing time.' Papers presented to Keith Blood. Northern Archaeol (Spec Edition) 17/18 (1999)
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