Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust MPK5232 (None)
NMR: NO 11 NW 23 (28025)
SM: 9440
NGR: NO 1362 1999
X: 313620 Y: 719990 (OSGB36)
This fort crowns Moredun Top, which is the very highest of the summits along the Moncrieffe Hill ridge. Its defences represent at least four phases of construction, the earliest of which is a large oval enclosure with its rampart following a natural break of slope round the E, N and W flanks of the hill to enclose an area measuring 197m from ENE to WSW by 100m transversely (1.5ha). This is probably overlain on the ENE by the circuit of a second rampart following another break of slope set a little further back up the hill and enclosing an area measuring 110m from E to W by 76m transversely (0.65ha). A D-shaped annexe representing a third phase is apparently butted onto the N side of this enclosure, crossing the earlier rampart and looping round a series of shelves on the N spur to enclose an area measuring 110m from E to W along the chord formed by the second rampart by 76m transversely (0.65ha). On the E the rampart of the annexe returns into an area of shallow surface quarrying, which has not only obscured its relationship to the second rampart, but also the relationship of that rampart to a substantial stony mound measuring 30m from E to W by 23m transversely and at least 1.5m in height, which lies immediately within its line; it is unclear whether this is the remains of an earlier cairn occupying a false-crest position on the shoulder of the hill, or perhaps some substantial later structure such as a broch, dominating the view northwards across the Tay at Perth. Leaving this mound aside, a stone-walled enclosure on the very summit is likely to represent the fourth and last structural phase in the defences of the fort, though its relationship to the second rampart on the S cannot be demonstrated stratigraphically. Measuring 53m from NW to SE by 38m transversely (0.15ha) within a wall reduced to a mound of rubble up to 13m in thickness by 1m in height, a substantial external face has been exposed in what may be an undocumented antiquarian excavation on its W side. Three hut-circles, which can be seen within the N part of the interior of this small enclosure, and a fourth lying a short distance outside it, may represent a later, essentially, unenclosed settlement on the fort. The only other features of note within the overall area enclosed by the defences are a pond at the W end of the area enclosed by the second rampart. Apart from a source of stone, however, the summit has remained a natural vantage point long after the defences were abandoned and the site was evidently incorporated in a woodland setting into the design of the landscape around Moncrieffe House, which may account for the trackway driven through the W side of the annexe and up though what was probably an original entrance gap in the first two ramparts on the N, to cut across the wall of the summit enclosure on the NE; a socketstone for a flagpole set into the rubble of the wall on the S, and the anchor points for four stays, possibly mark its destination. Another trackway descends the S flank of the hill via what is probably another original gap in the second rampart.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -378466 Y: 7631295 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.399816688012279 Latitude: 56.364363435154594 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Perth & Kinross
Historic County: Perthshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Dunbarney
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: 223.0m
N/A
Radiocarbon dates have yet to be published
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | Quarrying and landscape features, including a trackway to the summit and a flagpole |
| Other: | Moncrieffe was considered to be possibly derived from Monad Croib (Monad Craebi), site of a battle fort AD 728 (Watson 1926, 400-1) |
None
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1842): | Noted (NSA, 10, Perthshire, 810) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1860): | Named Fort in Gothic type on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Perth and Clackmannan 1866, sheet 98.14) |
| Earthwork Survey (1899): | Plan and description by David Christison (1900, 80-1, fig 37) |
| Earthwork Survey (1953): | Plan (RCAHMS DC5379 & DP157780; Feachem 1955, 79-80; 1963, 145) |
| Other (1963): | Revised at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1996): | Visited by RCAHMS |
| Other (2001): | Schedule |
| Earthwork Survey (2012): | Plan (Oxford North 2012) |
| Earthwork Survey (2014): | Plan and description (RCAHMS DC57647 & SC1425572; GV005432, WP003616 & DP203195 ) |
| Excavation (2015): | Directed by Davie Strachan with AOC Archaeology |
Four hut-circles, possibly representing a later settlement
None
| None | ✗ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✓ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Broch
| No Known Features | ✗ |
| Round Stone Structures | ✓ |
| Rectangular Stone Structures | ✗ |
| Curvilinear Platforms | ✓ |
| Other Roundhouse Evidence | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
Not yet published, but broch-like structure revealed in excavation 2016
| 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: | Robbing and quarrying has broken up the line of the ramparts in several secrors |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North): | Taken by the later track through a natural hollow traversed by the earliest rampart |
| 1. Simple Gap (North): | Taken by the later track through a natural hollow traversed by the second phase rampart |
| 2. Simple Gap (South): | Taken by a later track through a natural hollow traversed by the defences |
Three major ramparts encircling the hill and an annexe attached to one of them on the N
| Area 1: | 0.15ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.65ha. |
| Area 3: | 1.5ha. |
| Total: | 1.5ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 2.2ha.
None
| ✓ | The annexe clearly overlies an earlier circuit and butts onto a later circuit |
| ✓ | The second rampart and the innermost enclosure form complete circuits |
| NE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 3 |
| NW Quadrant: | 4 |
| Total: | 4 |
| 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
| ✓ | A D-shaped annexe representing a third phase in the defensive sequence is apparently butted onto the N side of the enclosure formed by the second rampart, crossing the earlier rampart and looping round a series of shelves on the N spur to enclose an area measuring 110m from E to W by 76m transversely (0.65ha). On the E the rampart of the annexe returns into an area of shallow surface quarrying, which has obscured its relationship to the second rampart, |
Christison, D (1900) 'The forts, "camps", and other field-works of Perth, Forfar and Kincardine'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 34 (1899-1900), 43-120
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London
Feachem, R (1955) 'Fortifications'. In Wainwright, F T (ed.) (1955) The problem of the Picts, Studies in History and Archaeology. Edinburgh
Oxford North (2012) Hill-forts of the Inner Tay Estuary, Perth, Perth and Kinross: Phase One. Archaeological Survey Report
NSA (1834-1845) The new statistical account of Scotland by the ministers of the respective parishes under the superintendence of a committee of the society for the benefit of the sons and daughters of the clergy. 15v. Edinburgh
Name Book, Ordnance Survey Object Name Books (6 inch and 1/2500 scale); available https://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/
Watson, W J (1926) The history of the Celtic place-names of Scotland: being the Rhind lectures on archaeology (expanded) delivered in 1916. 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