Accessibility

Font Size

100% 150% 200%

Background Colour

Default Contrast
Close Reset

Torr Alvie

Fort (Prehistoric)

Site Name Torr Alvie

Classification Fort (Prehistoric)

Canmore ID 339862

Site Number NH80NE 104

NGR NH 87701 08854

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/339862

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

Toggle Aerial | View on large map

Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Highland
  • Parish Alvie
  • Former Region Highland
  • Former District Badenoch And Strathspey
  • Former County Inverness-shire

Activities

External Reference (2011)

A possible dun or fortification occupies an 85 x 30m area on the summit of the hill. The area is generally flat but slopes to the SW. It is enclosed by the remnants of a stony bank and a distinct change of slope. The building of the monument significantly disturbed the NE end of the site and it is considered likely that any remains of a fortification have been destroyed in this area. The SW end of the stony bank is 2–3m thick and 25m to the SW of the bank a further change in slope, 40m in length, may reflect additional fortification.

Field Visit (12 March 2014)

This fort occupies the NE summit of a high ridge between Loch Alvie and the River Spey. The flanks of the ridge, which fall away steeply on all sides, are covered with mixed woodland, but there is a lighter growth of birch on the fort from where the outlook would have been especially extensive NE before the Duke of Gordon's monument was erected (NH80NE 18). Although the foundation mound of this monument appears to overlie its N end, the fort measures at least 62m from NE to SW by 27m transversely within a collapsed moss and grass-grown boulder wall spread up to 3.5m thick and 0.35m high. This wall, which is now represented by an intermittent band of rubble that closely follows the edge of the plateau, is best preserved on the SW, but short lengths also exist on the NW and SE where occasional facing stones remain. However, where it has been heavily robbed, it's line is marked instead by a pronounced stony scarp up to 0.6m high. There is no clear trace of an entrance, but there is a break at the NE end of the wall's circuit on the SE where it approaches the monument's mound. A second line of defence on the SW crosses the neck of the plateau 15m SW of the fort. This consists of a bank measuring 4m thick and 0.25m high and an external ditch measuring 2.5m wide and 0.25m deep. The interior of the fort is featureless but for a 19th century track.

Visited by RCAHMS (ATW, IP), 12 March 2014.

Measured Survey (11 March 2014)

RCAHMS surveyed Torr Alvie fort with plane-table and self-reducing alidade on 11 March 2014 at a scale of 1:500. The resultant plan was redrawn in vector graphics software.

Note (22 February 2016 - 18 May 2016)

The remains of a heavily robbed fort are situated on the NE summit of the steep-sided ridge known as the Torr of Alvie, but the construction in 1840 of a monument to commemorate the Duke of Gordon (died 1836) has obliterated its NE end. An elongated oval on plan, it has measured at least 62m from NE to SW by 27m transversely (0.16ha) within a wall largely reduced to a stony bank spread up to 3.5m in thickness and little more than 0.35m in height, though in places forming a stony scarp some 0.6m in height; a few outer facing-stones remain in situ on the W and along the SE flank. In addition to this wall, a shallow ditch 2.5m broad, with traces of a low internal bank 4m thick and 0.2m high at its N end, has been drawn across the spine of the hill some 15m to the SW. There is no clear evidence of an entrance, but at the NE end the remains of the wall peter out short of the Gordon monument, and apart from the track leading up to the monument the interior is featureless.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC4151

References

MyCanmore Image Contributions


Contribute an Image

MyCanmore Text Contributions