Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Highland HER MHG785 (None)
NMR: ND 05 NE 2 (7634)
SM: 542
NGR: ND 0526 5775
X: 305263 Y: 957750 (OSGB36)
This hilltop enclosure is situated at the NE end of a low ridge that rises from the foot of the N flank of Ben Shurrery. Unfortunately it was deep-ploughed and afforested in the 1970s, though that crop of trees has now been felled and a management agreement has been put in place to maintain the site in a clearing. It has been planned on two occasions, once in 1910 (RCAHMS 1911, 96-7, no.355, fig 19) and again in 1955 (RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands), revealing an irregularly shaped enclosure measuring about 90m from NE to SW by 70m transversely within a ruined stone wall. Prior to afforestation long stretches of the outer face were visible, particularly where it cut back across the crest of the ridge on the SW, together with occasional runs of the inner face, indicating an original thickness of about 2.4m. The stump of an upright stone set transversely within the body of the wall on the NE probably marks the position of an entrance. The only feature visible within the interior is a small circular hut of unknown date near the W angle, while on the SE, near the S corner, a hut-circle overlies the perimeter; it measures about 9m in internal diameter and its interior has been dug up to 2m into the slope at the foot of the fort wall.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -403769 Y: 8072603 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.6271216578758976 Latitude: 58.497698733860325 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Highland
Historic County: Caithness
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Reay
None
| Extant | ✓ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✗ |
Ploughed and planted but since felled
| 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: 129.0m
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: | Small circular hut |
None
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1872): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch Map (Caithness 1877, sheet 16.8) |
| Earthwork Survey (1910): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1911, 96-7, no.355, fig 19) |
| Other (1934): | Scheduled |
| Earthwork Survey (1955): | Plan and description RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (RCAHMS CAD 2/1-3; Feachem 1963, 114) |
| Other (1962): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1975): | Found afforested by Ian Ralston (1975) |
| Other (1981): | Revised at 1:10,000 by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1982): | Plan of hut-circle by R J Mercer (1985,108; RCAHMS DC741) |
| Other (1991): | Richard Hingley visits with a view to having the trees removed |
| Other (2004): | Forestry management plan put in place following site meetings in 1999 to see fort kept cleared of trees (see Highland HER) |
Circular hut
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
The small circular hut is likely to be of later date
| 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: | Heavily mutilated all round the circuit |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North east): | None |
Single wall
| Area 1: | 0.75ha. |
| Total: | 0.75ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| NW Quadrant: | 1 |
| 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 |
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London
Mercer, R J (1985) Archaeological Field Survey in Northern Scotland Volume III 1982-1983. University of Edinburgh, Department of Archaeology, Occasional Paper No. 11. Edinburgh
Ralston, I (1975) Reay, Cnoc an Ratha, hillfort'. Disc Exc Scot (1975), 18
RCAHMS (1911) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Third report and inventory of monuments and constructions in the county of Caithness. HMSO, London
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