LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Aberdeenshire Historic Environment Record NO67SW0004 (None)
NMR: NO 67 SW 1 (36125)
SM: None
NGR: NO 6334 7228
X: 363340 Y: 772280 (OSGB36)
The remains of this fort are situated on a low hillock and have been heavily reduced by both robbing and cultivation, so much so that in the mid 19th century it was merely annotated 'Green Cairn' on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Kincardine 1868, sheet 23.2). Nevertheless, a description written in the late 18th century and excavations in 1796 by Sir Walter Scott (Chalmers 1807, i, 178; Cameron 1899, 135-7) had clearly revealed the character of the site, recording elements of the defences and extensive evidence of burning. As it appears today, the wall is spread some 8.5m in thickness, enclosing a sub-oval area measuring 55m from NE to SW by 20m transversely (0.08ha), though where Laurie Maclagan Wedderburn exposed the faces on the N in his excavations in 1973, it was only 5m in thickness. The following year, he also uncovered an entrance at the NE end, which accords with the evidence subsequently revealed by parchmarks of three ditches at this end, pierced by a single entrance; the entrance through the wall, however, had been blocked (Wedderburn 1974). The innermost of the outer ditches probably encircles the whole fort and is cut by a small quarry on the SE, where Ian Ralston and William Watt (1982) identified a possible palisade trench, not subsequently confirmed; the sides of the quarry have entirely collapsed now and the slope is riddled with rabbit holes. Given the relatively low relief of the hillock occupied by the fort it is likely that there are also multivallate defences at the SW end. Fragments of vitrifaction can still be found along the line of the wall and Wedderburn located extensive charcoal deposits representing both small round woods and major beams, but the five radiocarbon dates he obtained have wide standard deviations and are to all intents and purposes useless, spanning 1000 years from 800 BC to AD 240. Nevertheless, amongst the later dates was at least one apparently stratified under the wall and dating 400 cal BC to cal AD 250, perhaps indicating a late Iron Age context for the fort. Wedderburn believed that some of the features he recorded in the interior dated from before the construction of the wall, though the presence of the ditches revealed by parchmarks may indicate a longer history of enclosure and fortification on this hillock.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -289710 Y: 7727605 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.602513083158183 Latitude: 56.840584649227516 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Aberdeenshire
Historic County: Kincardineshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Fettercairn
Inner circuit remains visible, but the outer defences are known only from cropmarks and the inner ditch was exposed in a quarry on the SW flank
| 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: 60.0m
N/A
Five old dates with wide standard deviations covering the greater part of the 1st millennium BC. At face value they suggest at least one period of fortification in the second half of the 1st millennium BC
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✓ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | Heavy robbing and cultivation |
| C14: | Five old dates |
Both Aberdeenshire Council and RCAHMS hold aerial photographs
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1789): | Description by James Strachan, including extensive burnt timbers (Chalmers 1807, i, 178) |
| Other (1793): | Noted (Stat Acct, v, 1793, 334-5) |
| Excavation (1796): | By Sir Walter Scott (Cameron 1899, 135-7) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1863): | Named in Gothic type on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Kincardine 1868, sheet 23.2) |
| Other (1899): | Visited by David Christison (1900, 108) |
| Other (1956): | Description during RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands |
| Other (1971): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Excavation (1973): | By Laurie M Maclagan Wedderburn (1973 a &b) |
| Excavation (1974): | By Laurie M Maclagan Wedderburn (1974) |
| Other (1982): | Visited by Ian Ralston identifying a cut feature in the quarry on the SE (Ralston and Watt 1982) |
| Other (1982): | Visited by RCAHMS |
Featureless apart from Wedderburns excavation trenches
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 | ✗ |
Some of the features apparently dated from before the fort wall
| 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. Blocked (North east): | None |
| 1. Simple Gap (North east): | None |
Single massive burnt and vitrified wall with evidence of three outer ditches on the NE
| Area 1: | 0.08ha. |
| Total: | 0.08ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✓ | Blocked entrance |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 2 |
| Total: | 3 |
| 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: 3
| ✗ | None |
Cameron A C (1899) The History of Fettercairn: A Parish in the County of Kincardine. J and R Parlane: Paisley
Chalmers, G. (1807) Caledonia: or a historical and topographical account of North Britain
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.
Ralston and Watt, I and W. (1982) 'Greencairn fort, Cairnton of Balbegno (Fettercairn p): palisade'. Disc Exc Scot (1982), 13
Stat Acct (date) Statistical Account of Scotland: Drawn up from the Communications of the Ministers of the Different Parishes (Sinclair, J ed), 1791-99
Wedderburn, L M M. (1973a) Excavations at Greencairn, Cairnton of Balbegno, Fettercairn, Angus {Kincardineshire}: a preliminary report. Dundee Museum and Art Gallery occasional papers in archaeology no.1. Dundee.
Wedderburn, L M M (1973b) 'Greencairn, Cairnton of Balbegno: vitrified fort'. Disc Exc Scot (1973), 4
Wedderburn, L M M (1974) 'Cairnton of Balbegno: Greencairn fort'. Disc Exc Scot (1974), 41
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