Following the launch of trove.scot in February 2025 we are now planning the retiral of some of our webservices. Canmore will be switched off on 24th June 2025. Information about the closure can be found on the HES website: Retiral of HES web services | Historic Environment Scotland
Doonans Hill
Fort (Prehistoric)(Possible)
Site Name Doonans Hill
Classification Fort (Prehistoric)(Possible)
Canmore ID 41560
Site Number NS30SE 4
NGR NS 3942 0278
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/41560
- Council South Ayrshire
- Parish Straiton (Kyle And Carrick)
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Kyle And Carrick
- Former County Ayrshire
NS30SE 4 3942 0278.
NS 3945 0275. The remains of a multivallate fort exist on the summit of Doonans Hill, which rises sharply from a plain on three sides and in a long steep slope on the west.
Information from K A Steer, RCAHMS, letter, 16 April 1954.
The enceinte has measured only 80' by 60' but has been defended by a triple rampart with an additional horn-work inserted between the middle and outer ramparts on the east. Erosion has reduced all the defences to broken and irregular scarps, or to mere crest-lines, but small groups of tumbled boulders exposed by sheep-rubs in the outer rampart suggest that it at least has been kerbed or revetted with stone. A track passing through all four ramparts on the east probably represents the original entrance. There is no sign of huts (RCAHMS TS 6 September 1955).
Visited by OS (JD) 17 November 1955
NS 3942 0278 No change to previous information.
Surveyed at 1:10 000.
Visited by OS (BS) 10 February 1976
The above authorities may have overstated the properties of this possible fort. Doonan Hill has natural outcrop bands and terraces around its summit area and most of the irregular scarps described appear to coincide with these sheep-rubbed lines, making interpretation of any artificial work difficult. The enceinte is almost certainly a natural earth capping over a summit outcrop.
No trace of walling was found above the up to 1.0m high scarps, and the 'tambled boulders' were found embedded at only two points, on the outer eastern scarp, and in a shallow sheep-rub on the steep south side. This material is of many types of large stones foreign to the hill bedrock and could be a glacial deposit. The 'entrance' is initially impressive but is unduly straight and follows a natural break in the outcrop bands. RAF aerial photographs (CPE/Scot/UK307: 4054-5, flown 1947) clearly show the morphology of this hill and give no indication of artificial work, unless any walls, which may have existed, have been totally removed.
Visited by OS (JRL) 29 October 1980
Field Visit (6 September 1955)
On the summit of Doonans Hill (900 ft OD) there are the last vestiges of a contour fort which has consisted of a small enclosure, not more than 80ft in length by about 60ft in breadth, defended by the multiple ramparts lettered A to D on the plan. Three of the ramparts (A, B and D) have probably completely encompassed the fort, but the other (C) appears to have been simply a horn-work designed to afford extra protection at the east end only. Erosion has reduced all the ramparts to broken and irregular scarps, or to mere crest-lines; but small groups of tumbled boulders exposed in sheep-rubs at the points marked E and F on the plan, and in the face of the scarp at G, suggest that the outer rampart (D) at least may have been kerbed or revetted with stone. A track which passes more or less directly through all four ramparts at the east end of the fort probably represents the original entrance passage, but no signs of huts can be seen either within the innermost enclosure, or on the level grassy shelves enclosed by the outer rampart alone at both the east and west ends.
Visited by RCAHMS (KAS) 6 September 1955
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.
Field Visit (September 1982)
Doonans Hill NS 394 027 NS30SE 4
This fort is situated on the summit of Doonans Hill; it measures 105m by 43m within a single rampart, and the entrance is on the E.
RCAHMS 1983, visited September 1982
(NMRS, AYD/9/1-2)
Note (31 July 2014 - 23 May 2016)
THis fort is situated on the summit of Doonans Hill, which rises steeply from the E bank of the Water of Girvan to the S of Straiton. Roughly oval on plan, it measures 105m from E to W by 43m transversely (0.34ha) within a single rampart reduced to a low bank. A series of terraces within the interior, which were identified in 1955 by RCAHMS as the remains of further ramparts, are probably natural. The interior is otherwise featureless and the entrance is on the E.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC1287
