Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust MPK3954 (None)
NMR: NO 14 SW 5 (28970)
SM: 1638
NGR: NO 1107 4403
X: 311075 Y: 744030 (OSGB36)
Clunie Castle occupies a natural hillock known as Castle Hill between Clunie parish church and the W shore of the Loch of Clunie. The castle is known to have been established in 1141 as a hunting seat for the royal forest of Clunie on the hills to the N, but documentary sources have led to the suggestion that there was a fortified site at Cluny from at least AD 849 (Alcock 1981, 161), and the hillock may well have been adapted as a motte before the remains of the stone castle visible on its summit was built. The latter comprise fragments of a building at the SW angle of the rectangular summit of hillock, and lengths of probable curtain wall on the E and the NW. The summit itself measures about 90m from NNW to SSE by up to 40m transversely (0.35ha) and its margins are sharply scarped, falling away steeply on the S, E and N to an artificial terrace which can also be traced round onto the W. Here, however, there is also an intermediate terrace above it and an outer terrace below it, giving the impression of a set of garden terraces. Without excavation it is impossible to unravel the history of these various elements, to distinguish any later landscaping from the defences of the stone castle and any earth and timber predecessor, let alone any early medieval fortification that may have occupied the same site. The stone castle was demolished in the early sixteenth century to a build a tower-house for the Bishops of Dunkeld on an island in the loch.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Unconfirmed
X: -383963 Y: 7674714 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.4492017090973026 Latitude: 56.57980235599805 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Perth & Kinross
Historic County: Perthshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Clunie
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 | ✗ |
Character pre-castle fortification is unknown
| 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: 60.0m
N/A
Suggested to be a fortified site from at least AD 849 (Alcock 1981, 161). 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 |
| Other: | Documentary |
RCAHMS also hold a range of aerial views of the castle earthworks and its surroundings by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme.
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1793): | Description (Stat Acct ix, 1793, 265) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1864): | Annotated Castle on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Perth and Clackmannan 1867, sheet 63.1) |
| Other (1889): | Description (MacGibbon and Ross 1889, iii, 589-90) |
| Other (1943): | Visited by OGS Crawford |
| Other (1968): | Scheduled |
| Other (1975): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1989): | Plan and description (RCAHMS DC25121 & SC395167; DC25122; RCAHMS 1994, 105-7) |
| Other (1992): | Re-Scheduled |
Essentially a castle with fragments of as stone building at its S end
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Stone buildings belonging to the castle
| 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 | ✗ |
Stone buildings belonging to the castle
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
See main summary
| 0: | None |
| 2: | Castle entrance is apparently up a ramp on the S giving access to the top of the Castle Hill |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
Apart from the traces of a curtain wall on the NW and E of the summit of the Castle Hill, there are also traces of heavily landscaped earthworks along its flanks, at least one of which may indicate the position of a defensive ditch
| Area 1: | 0.35ha. |
| Total: | 0.35ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 1.1ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | There are earthworks enclosing the whole of Castle Hill, but without excavation it is impossible to separate defensive ditches from landscape features, and the remains of the medieval castle from any earlier works |
| NE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 0 |
| Total: | 0 |
| 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: 1
| ✗ | None |
Alcock, L (1981) 'Early historic fortifications in Scotland'. In Guilbert, G (1981) Hill-fort studies: essays for A H A Hogg. Leicester
MacGibbon and Ross, D and T (1887-92) The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries (5v. Edinburgh
Stat Acct (date) Statistical Account of Scotland: Drawn up from the Communications of the Ministers of the Different Parishes (Sinclair, J ed), 1791-99
RCAHMS (1994) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. South-east Perth: an archaeological landscape. 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