Allt An Dubhair
Fort (Prehistoric)
Site Name Allt An Dubhair
Classification Fort (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 40031
Site Number NR99NW 4
NGR NR 9477 9748
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/40031
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Kilmichael Glassary
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NR99NW 4 9477 9748.
(NR 9478 9750) A settlement lies on a small crag very steep on the east, in a high glen at Allt an Dubhair.
On the summit, a contoured oval enclosure about 200' by 100' has traces of a gate on the NW. Two wall faces give a probable thickness of about 6'. There are probably boulder outworks on the west.
There are small huts within the enclosure and oval ruins under the crag on the south.
M Campbell and M Sandeman 1964; M Campbell 1962
On top of an isolated rocky crag, steep sided on all but the west side, are the remains of a small oval fort. It is formed by a collapsed stone wall enclosing an area 44.0m NE-SW by 30.0m and has an entrance 2.0m wide in the west segment.
No definite wall faces were noted but the wall appears to have an average width of 3.0m. Round the north and east sides it runs well below the summit of the crag, but fades out as it approaches the south side where the steep rock face provides adequate defence.
Approximately 12.0m beyond the west perimeter several boulders set in line suggest the remains of a cross wall, an additional defence across the gently sloping western approach. No huts were noted within the fort in the south.
Surveyed at 1:10 000.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 2 April 1970
Field Visit (May 1983)
The remains of a fort occupy the precipitous E end of a ridge 900m W of feorlin (Campbell and Sandeman 1964). The wall, which encloses an area of rough grass and rocky outcrops measuring some 45m by 30m, is built markedly below the level of the summit on the N and W, where it measures about 2.25m in average thickness. On the S and E, where the site is defended by cliffs, there are only slight traces of walling. The entrance, which is some 2m wide, is situated on the W.
Visited May 1983
RCAHMS 1988
Measured Survey (22 May 1983)
RCAHMS surveyed Allt an Dubhair Fort on 22 May 1983 with plane-table and alidade producing a plan at a scale of 1:100. The plan of the fort was redrawn in ink and published at a scale of 1:250 (RCAHMS 1988a, 143).
Field Walking (25 June 2012 - 14 September 2012)
Walkover surveys of two areas associated with the proposed development at A'Chruach, Kilmichael Forest, Argyll.
WA Heritage (S. Lancaster) OASIS ID: waherita1-151338
Note (31 October 2014 - 23 May 2016)
The remains of a small fortification occupying the precipitous ENE end of a low ridge. Roughly oval on plan, it measures about 45m from ENE to WSW by 30m transversely within a wall largely reduced to a band of rubble 2.2m in thickness, though even this peters out along the cliff-edge on the S. The entrance is on the W, where in 1970 the OS also noted a line of boulders that they suggested might mark the line of an outer defence across the easiest line of approach; this feature is not shown on the plan drawn up by RCAHMS investigators in 1983 (RCAHMS 1988, 143, no.232). The rocky interior is featureless.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2478
