Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust MPK2289 (None)
NMR: NO 03 NW 1 (26986)
SM: None
NGR: NO 0224 3822
X: 302240 Y: 738220 (OSGB36)
The summit of Craig Obney is crowned by a small-stone-walled enclosure, but there are also traces of a single wall drawn round the margin of the uneven heather-clad plateau from which it rises. This latter enclosure is oval on plan and measures internally at least 90m in length from NE to SW by up to 40m transversely (0.32ha). Its wall has been heavily robbed, probably to build the inner enclosure on the summit, but a few pieces of vitrifaction have been observed on the NE, where there are also a few outer facing-stones visible, and there is a possible outer rampart blocking acess from the more easily accessible SW end. The interior is rough and uneven, but the OS identified two possible house platforms at the SW end, and suggested that a hollow on the N is a cistern or well. The circuit is so heavily robbed, however, that it is difficult to identify any original gaps in its line, but there are possible entrances on the E and the SW. In 1957, RCAHMS investigators suggested that a short length of ditch leading ENE out of a boggy sump below the S flank of the fort was also an outwork of the defences, but it might equally be a crude attempt at drainage of much more recent date. The inner enclosure on the summit, which almost certainly overlies the wall of the fort on the S, is oval on plan and measures about 26m from NW to SE by 16m transversely (0.05ha) within a wall spread 6m in thickness by up to 0.6m in height.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -399723 Y: 7663821 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.5907759634142304 Latitude: 56.525866569915586 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Perth & Kinross
Historic County: Perthshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Auchtergaven
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: 400.0m
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: | The inner enclosure almost certainly overlies the fort rampart |
Not visited by David Christison on the strength of the map annotation (1900, 107). Oblique aerial views have been taken by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1864): | Annotated Fort (Site of) on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Perth and Clackmannan 1867, sheet 73.1) |
| Other (1879): | Vitrifaction noted (McLean 1879, 70) |
| Other (1957): | Description for RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands |
| Other (1969): | Description and surveyed at 1:10,000 by the OS |
| Other (1975): | Surveyed at 1:10,000 by the OS |
Featureless apart from the large stone-walled enclosure
RCAHMS do not identify the possible well or cistern
| None | ✗ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✓ |
| Other | ✗ |
Two identified by the OS, who also suggest a hollow on the N is a well or cistern.
| 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
| 2: | The rampart is heavily robbed |
| 2: | Two gaps appear on the RCAHMS sketch-plan |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (East): | None |
| 2. Simple Gap (South west): | None |
Single rampart skirts the summit plateau, with a possible outwork at one end and a small inner, and probably overlying, enclosure on the summit itself
| Area 1: | 0.05ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.32ha. |
| Total: | 0.32ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✓ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 1 |
| Total: | 2 |
| 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 (1900) 'The forts, "camps", and other field-works of Perth, Forfar and Kincardine'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 34 (1899-1900), 43-120
McLean, C (1879) Dunkeld - Its Straths and Glens; or, Central Perthshire Historical and Descriptive. (New and revised edition) Dunkeld
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