Dundoran
Fort (Prehistoric)
Site Name Dundoran
Classification Fort (Prehistoric)
Alternative Name(s) Dundoran Plantation
Canmore ID 66919
Site Number NY19NW 5
NGR NY 12653 97465
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/66919
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Wamphray
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Annandale And Eskdale
- Former County Dumfries-shire
NY19NW 5 1265 9747
(NY 1265 9747) Fort (NR).
OS 6"map, (1958)
Remains of a fort, perhaps originally in the form of an ellipse (see APs)(Visible on air photographs RAF 541(A)397 20/5/48 F20 3375-6), now almost disappeared except for twin ramparts with outer ditch which remain on the N side.
RCAHMS 1920; R W Feachem 1956
The remains of a fort occupying the S end of a wooded ridge and comprising a scarp skirting the top of the slope on the E and running along the side of the slope on the W. On the N a bank and ditch survive while the S side has been destroyed. The enclosed area measures 90.0m N-S by 50.0m transversely. Within the interior on the W side are slight unsurveyable traces of a scarp or bank which may indicate an earlier phase of construction.
Published survey (25") revised.
Visited by OS (J P) 8 December 1972
No change to previous field report.
Surveyed at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (T R G) 15 September 1978
Field Visit (11 April 1991)
NY 1265 9747 NY19NW 5
The wasted remains of a fort are situated at the S end of a tree-covered ridge. Oval on plan, it measures about 90m from N to S by 50m transversely within a single rampart (up to 5.5m thick and 1m high), an external ditch (4.7m broad and 0.6m deep), and a low counterscarp bank. The rampart has been levelled on the S, and reduced to a low scarp elsewhere. Within the W side of the interior, there is a length of bank (up to 4.6m thick and 0.3m high) which has been drawn in a gentle arc roughly concentric with the rampart; this work may have formed part of an earlier defensive system.
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) 11 April 1991.
Listed as fort.
RCAHMS 1997.
Note (13 June 2014 - 23 May 2016)
Situated on the southern spur of a long, steep-sided ridge name Dundoran, this fort is oval on plan, measuring 90m from N to S by 50m transversely (0.35ha) within a rampart up to 5.5m in thickness by 1m in height, accompanied on the N by an external ditch 4.7m in breath by 0.6m in depth and traces of a low counterscarp bank. Elsewhere on the circuit, however, the rampart has been reduced to little more than a stony scarp, and around the S end it has been obliterated altogether. Within the line of the rampart on the W, drawn in a gentle arc roughly concentric to it, there are also traces of a stony bank measuring about 4.6m in thickness by 0.3m in height. Its date and purpose are unknown, but David Christison also observed traces of what he termed 'a traverse' cutting across the N end of the interior (1891, 246), and it is possible that these belong to an earlier or later enclosure on the site. The interior is otherwise featureless and the position of the entrance is not known
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC0979