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Glenduckie Hill

Fort (Period Unassigned), Settlement (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Glenduckie Hill

Classification Fort (Period Unassigned), Settlement (Period Unassigned)

Canmore ID 30060

Site Number NO21NE 5

NGR NO 2813 1931

NGR Description Centred on NO 2813 1931

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/30060

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Fife
  • Parish Flisk
  • Former Region Fife
  • Former District North East Fife
  • Former County Fife

Archaeology Notes

NO21NE 5 centred 2813 1931.

(Centred NO 2827 1952) There are the remains of an IA fort and a later homestead on Glenduckie Hill.

The fort was defended by a single rampart and ditch and measured internally 420ft by 130ft. The entrance, at the NE, was 8ft wide and a gap at the SW may be also original. There is no trace of contemporary buildings within.

The homestead occupies the spine of the ridge in the SW half of the fort and consists of a single circular hut, 65ft in external diameter with a wall 6ft thick, within an enclosing wall, 100 to 150ft external diameter and about 9ft thick. Both walls are eroded on the NW.

A boulder-faced rubble wall 12ft thick, with a ditch, cuts off the NE end of the fort and appears to be later than the fort defences but there is no evidence that it is contemporary with the homestead.

Information from Ms notes by K A Steer (RCAHMS) 1954.

The hut is similar in construction to the stone-walled huts at Drumcarrow (NO41SE 2) which are constructed between the 2nd and 6th centuries AD.

G S Maxwell 1969.

Centred NO 2813 1931. As described and planned by the RCAHMS.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (W D J) 18 May 1970.

Activities

Field Visit (1 May 1952)

This site was included within the RCAHMS Marginal Land Survey (1950-1962), an unpublished rescue project. Site descriptions, organised by county, are available to view online - see the searchable PDF in 'Digital Items'. These vary from short notes, to lengthy and full descriptions. Contemporary plane-table surveys and inked drawings, where available, can be viewed online in most cases - see 'Digital Images'. The original typecripts, notebooks and drawings can also be viewed in the RCAHMS search room.

Information from RCAHMS (GFG) 19 July 2013.

Reference (1957)

This site is noted in the ‘List of monuments discovered during the survey of marginal land (1951-5)’ (RCAHMS 1957, xiv-xviii).

Information from RCAHMS (GFG), 24 October 2012.

Note (15 June 2015 - 19 October 2016)

This fort occupies the summit of the SW spur of Glenduckie Hill, comprising an irregular enclosure backing onto a cliff-edge along its NW flank and elsewhere defended by a single rampart reduced to a stony scarp and probably accompanied by an external ditch, though the latter is visible only on the NE. The interior measures 128m from NE to SW by a maximum of 47m transversely (0.46ha), but appears to have been reduced in size at a later date by the insertion of a wall 3m in thickness with an external ditch some 25m short of the NE end. One entrance is marked by a causeway across the ditch on the NE, and a possible second by a gap in the rampart on the SW, which had been used for timber extraction when RCAHMS investigators drew up a plan in 1952. Apart from what is probably a later stone-walled settlement enclosing a single large hut-circle towards the SW end, the interior is featureless. This settlement measures about 30m in diameter within a wall faced externally with large boulders and spread about 2.7m in thickness; its entrance is on the S. Its roughly central hut-circle measures about 15m in diameter within a wall 1.8m in thickness and also has an entrance on the S.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 19 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3122

Excavation (28 November 2019 - 29 November 2019)

NO 2819 1931 Glenduckie Hillfort (Canmore ID: 30060) is positioned on the southwestern spur of a craggy hill at a height of 195m OD, exactly 4km to the east of the early medieval fort of Clatchard Craig. It comprises what may be the remains of a hillfort enclosing an area of approximately 0.46ha which surrounds two smaller enclosures at the south-west. The latter consist of a 30m diameter stone wall measuring 2.7m thick with evidence for facing on its exterior which surrounds a smaller enclosure 15m in diameter with a 1.8m thick stone wall that has been interpreted as a large hut-site. Two small excavation trenches were opened over the perimeter of the smallest inner enclosure. These excavations revealed the inner facing of the enclosure as well as a single occupation layer abutting this facing, and one pre-bank surface directly beneath. Both layers produced small fragments of charcoal and animal bone, with a fragment of a shale bracelet found in the upper surface. A radiocarbon date from this upper surface reveals this element of the monument was occupied in the period 400–200 cal BC.

Archive: University of Aberdeen

Funder: University of Aberdeen

James O’Driscoll and Gordon Noble - University of Aberdeen

(Source: DES Vol 20)

References

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