Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: The West of Scotland Archaeology Service 10931 (None)
NMR: NT 03 SW 18 (48749)
SM: 2646
NGR: NT 0221 3305
X: 302210 Y: 633050 (OSGB36)
The fort on the summit of Culterpark Hill is oval on plan, measuring 67m from NE to SW by 33m transversely within two ramparts with a medial ditch. Both ramparts have been severely reduced by cultivation in the interior and on the gentler slopes on the NE, SW and NW, and erosion along the steep SE flank, and while the crest of inner rises no more than 0.5m above the interior, it still stands some 4m above the bottom of the ditch. For most of its circuit, however, the counterscarp rampart is reduced to a scarp, and even this disappears on the N, but a short section survives as a bank on the NE. The entrance pierces both ramparts on the SW and the interior is featureless.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -395500 Y: 7475509 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.5528329637661162 Latitude: 55.58128619479837 (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 | ✗ |
In a clearing within a forestry plantation
| 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: 292.0m
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: | Cultivated |
Photographed by CUCAP in 1969 and by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1991
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1816): | Annotated Camp on William Forrest's map of The county of Lanark from actual survey (1816) |
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1855): | Description by George Irving (1855, 10; Irving and Murray 1864, 12) |
| Other (1859): | Annotated Camp on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Lanark 1864, sheet 40.5) |
| Earthwork Survey (1889): | Plan and description by David Christison (1890, 315-16, fig 15) |
| Earthwork Survey (1959): | Plan (RCAHMS LAD 136/1) |
| Other (1959): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1968): | Scheduled |
| Other (1970): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1978, 100, no.227, fig 56; RCAHMS LAD 136/2) |
| Other (1972): | Revised at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1979): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (2014): | Visited by SH |
Featureless
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 | ✗ |
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
| 1: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (South west): | Through both ramparts |
Two ramparts with a medial ditch
| Area 1: | 0.21ha. |
| Total: | 0.21ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.48ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 2 |
| 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: 1
| ✗ | None |
Christison, D (1890) 'Forts, camps, and motes of the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 24 (1889-90), 281-352
Irving, G V (1855) 'On ancient camps of the upper ward of Lanarkshire'. J Brit Archaeol Ass 10 (1855), 1-32
Irving and Murray, G V and A (1864) The upper ward of Lanarkshire described and delineated, 3v Glasgow
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