Culterpark Hill

RCAHMS surveyed this fort by plane-table on 18 August 1959 at a scale of 1mm:1ft. The resultant plan was redrawn in ink on 1974 and published in the County Inventory of Lanarkshire (RCAHMS 1978) as Fig. 56.

NT 022 330. Fort, Culterpark Hill; the remains of a bivallate fort, measuring 67m by 33m internally, occupy the summit of Culterpark Hill (292m OD). The site is protected on the SE by a long slope falling steeply to the valley floor, but is easily approached from all other directions.

The inner rampart appears for the most part as a grassy bank measuring up to 4.0m in height above the ditch and not more than 0.5m internally; one stone embedded in the bank on the NW suggests that it may have been stone-revetted externally. The outer rampart has been severely damaged by cultivation. On the ENE, where it is best preserved, it rises only 0.3m above the ditch and 0.6m above the ground outside. Elsewhere, it has been reduced to a low scarp or completely destroyed, and on the SE only a crest line indicates it approximate position. The entrance through both ramparts is on the SW. Ploughing has encroached over the whole of the interior. (See RCAHMS 1978 plan, fig.56).

RCAHMS 1978, visited June 1970.

NT03SW 18 0221 3305.

(NT 0221 3305) Fort (NR)

OS 6" map, (1962).

This fort is univallate rather than bivallate; the rampart is not particularly strong and relies principally on the steep natural slopes for defence. A 4.0m wide terrace, traceable through much of the perimeter, is all that survives of the ditch. It is doubtful that there ever was a second rampart (RCAHMS 1978) because the steep natural slopes preclude its siting, especially on the SE side; however, there may have been a palisade on the outer edge of the terrace. The mound to the ENE of the main work appears to be a natural outlier which has been utilised in the defences. It does not continue southwards and it cannot be traced to the north. The turf-covered interior is undulating.

Visited by OS(MJF) 31 January 1979.

The fort on the summit of Culterpark Hill is oval on plan, measuring 67m from NE to SW by 33m transversely within two ramparts with a medial ditch. Both ramparts have been severely reduced by cultivation in the interior and on the gentler slopes on the NE, SW and NW, and erosion along the steep SE flank, and while the crest of inner rises no more than 0.5m above the interior, it still stands some 4m above the bottom of the ditch. For most of its circuit, however, the counterscarp rampart is reduced to a scarp, and even this disappears on the N, but a short section survives as a bank on the NE. The entrance pierces both ramparts on the SW and the interior is featureless.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 31 August 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3235