Period: Bronze Age

Barry Hill Fort

Hillfort on Hill of Barra, near Old Meldrum, from the air

Barry Hill is a textbook “big fort waiting for a small trench”: its spectacular vitrified rampart, enigmatic outer works and Arthurian folklore offer equal attraction to scientists and story-lovers—yet almost everything we know comes from surface survey. A single, well-designed excavation season could pivot the site from picturesque curiosity to a securely dated anchor point in the defensive story of eastern Scotland.

Dunagoil Hillfort, (Isle of Bute, Argyll & Bute)

Dunagoil Hillfort

Dunagoil crowns a 30 m-high columnar-basalt promontory on the south-west coast of Bute, overlooking the Sound of Bute and the Cumbraes. Cliffs on the north and west form natural ramparts; only the gentle ESE saddle gives easy access.

Vitrified Forts: Glossary of Terms

Glossary

This page holds our Glossary of Terms for Vitrified Forts.

Guide: Common Features of Iron Age Hillforts

Maiden Castle, Dorchester, Dorset

This article attempts to serve as a guide for many of the features of the hillforts found in Britain, in particular. It explains the basic elements of the design and architecture of a hillfort.

Tap O’Noth Hill Fort

Tap O Noth Hillfort

This is one of the best examples of a vitrified fort, it is near the village of Rhynie in northeastern Scotland. This massive fort from prehistory is on the summit of a mountain of the same name which, being 1,859 feet (560 metres) high, commands an impressive view of the Aberdeenshire countryside.

How Hill Hillfort, Swaledale

How Hill Downholme LIDAR

How Hill, near Downholme in North Yorkshire, is the site of a large univallate hillfort.

Mam Tor Hill Fort, Castleton, Derbyshire

Despite is unusually high position, this fort contains traces of a number of huts, and on investigation these have yielded plentiful pottery, as well as charcoal giving a surprisingly early radio carbon date

Farley Moor Stone Circle, Derbyshire

Farley Moor Standing Stone, now part of Farley Moor Stone Circle, thanks to Time Team. Image taken from their video, below.

Geophysics and three hand-excavated trenches uncovered ten further uprights, in addition to the known standing stone at Farley Moor Woods, lying just below the leaf-litter, defining a ring c. 18 m in diameter around the visible stone. A low stone-built platform or “kerb cairn” occupies the circle’s south-eastern arc; charcoal lenses and a smashed Collared-Urn sherd in its make-up gave an early Bronze-Age radiocarbon estimate of c. 1700 BCE (3,700 cal BP).

West Scrafton – Coverdale

West Scrafton

West Scrafton is a village located in Coverdale in the Yorkshire Dales. It sits on the southern upward slops of Coverdale, and had its most recent heyday in the 19th century when coal mining took over the village.

Brough Law, Breamish Valley, Northumberland – Bronze Age Terracing

Summary and supplemental information in relation to the publication: Early‐Middle Bronze-Age Agricultural Terraces in North-East England: Morphology, Dating & Cultural Implications.

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