Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: The West of Scotland Archaeology Service 10929 (None)
NMR: NT 03 SW 16 (48747)
SM: 2636
NGR: NT 0438 3294
X: 304380 Y: 632940 (OSGB36)
This small fortification occupies a steep-sided hillock at the foot of the main mass of Black Hill SE of Cow Castle. Oval on plan, its defences comprise two elements which are probably successive, namely a stone-wall enclosing most of the summit of the hillock, and two ramparts reduced to scarps on its NW, SW and SE flanks. The inner enclosure measures internally about 32m from NE to SW by 20m transversely (0.05ha), and though its wall is largely reduced to a grass-grown stony bank 3m in thickness, occasional outer facing-stones are visible around the E half of the circuit. A broad gap on the NE probably marks the position of the entrance, opening out onto a gentle slope where cultivation has removed all trace of the outer defences. These probably belong to an earlier phase of construction, and while it is not possible to demonstrate the relationship without excavation, it is likely that the inner enclosure follows the line of an earlier rampart around most of its circuit. Only on the SW, and possibly the N, does the earlier rampart emerge from beneath it, originally enclosing an oval area measuring about 46m from NE to SW by 24m transversely (0.09ha). The outer is largely reduced to a terrace encircling the foot of the hillock, but on the N it is clear that it formed the counterscarp rampart on the outer lip of a medial ditch between them. Traces of up to four timber round-houses were noted by RCAHMS investigators within the enclosure on the summit, and presumably relate to the second phase of occupation.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -391665 Y: 7475399 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.5183849567488963 Latitude: 55.58072919223779 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: South Lanarkshire
Historic County: Lanarkshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Culter
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: 324.0m
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: | None |
CUCAP photographed the fort in 1969 and the RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1977, 1991, 1996 and 2003
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1859): | Annotated Camp on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Lanark 1864, sheet 40.6) |
| Earthwork Survey (1889): | Sketch-plan and description by David Christison (1890, 312-13, fig 13) |
| Earthwork Survey (1957): | Plan (RCAHMS LAD 141/1) |
| Other (1959): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1967): | Scheduled |
| Earthwork Survey (1975): | Plan of 1957 and description (RCAHMS 1978, 103-4, no.234, fig 60) |
| Other (2014): | Visited by SH |
RCAHMS investigators suggest that there are four timber round-houses within the interior, but their remains were too indefinite to depict on the plan. Subsequent aerial photography has shown traces of possibly two
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Traces of four ring-groove houses noted by RCAHMS in 1975.
| 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 | ✗ |
None
| 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. Simple Gap (North east): | Through the inner wall, which possibly belongs to a secondary phase |
Up to three ramparts, the two outer ones fragmentary and possibly earlier than the inner
| Area 1: | 0.05ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.09ha. |
| Total: | 0.09ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✓ | While it is difficult to demonstrate the stratigraphical relationship conclusively, the innermost enclosure on the summit probably overlies the rampart visible on the SW |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 3 |
| 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: 1
| ✗ | None |
Christison, D (1890) 'Forts, camps, and motes of the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 24 (1889-90), 281-352
RCAHMS. (1978) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Lanarkshire: an inventory of the prehistoric and Roman monuments. 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