Clanghie Bay
Promontory Fort (Iron Age)
Site Name Clanghie Bay
Classification Promontory Fort (Iron Age)
Alternative Name(s) Clanghie Point
Canmore ID 60509
Site Number NX04SE 19
NGR NX 08757 41558
NGR Description Centre
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/60509
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Kirkmaiden
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Wigtown
- Former County Wigtownshire
NX04SE 19 0875 4156.
This fort occupies a precipitous coastal promontory on the E side of Clanghie Bay, about 170m E of the fort on Clanghie Point (NX04SE 20). On the landward side the promontory is isolated by a gully which measures 6m in breadth and varies from 1.1m in depth at the NW end to 1.7m at the SE end. The fort wall, now reduced to a band of rubble spread up to 3.5m in thickness by 0.4m in height, runs along the lip of the gully for a distance of about 15m. At the W end the inner angle of the wall is indicated by three possible facing-stones, small boulders up to 0.55m by 0.2m and 0.1m in height, and the wall is no more than 2.2m thick; elsewhere the probable position of the inner face is marked by a line of small robber pits. On the landward side of the gully, at the foot of the coastal escarpment, there is an outer defence, comprising a bank with an external ditch; the bank measures up to 2.4m in thickness by 0.4m in height and the ditch, which is little more than two interlocking scoops into the till at the foot of the escarpment, 3.4m in breadth by 0.4m in depth externally. The interior of the fort measures 56m in length over all and tapers from 17m in breadth on the NE to a narrow finger of bare outcrop for the final 16m of its length on the SW; the habitable area, however, is limited to the floor of a shallow gully 9m broad, which drops gently down from back of the wall.
RCAHMS 1985, visited (SH) July 1984.
Note (20 December 2013 - 31 August 2016)
This fort is situated on a precipitous coastal promontory cut off from the land by a gully 6m in breadth by up to 1.7m in depth. The inner defence comprises a wall some 15m in length, reduced largely to a band of rubble 3.5m thick by 0.4m high, which extends from E to W along the seaward lip of the gully; occasional facing-stones and robber pits indicate an original thickness of about 2.2m. A second line of defence lies at the foot of the coastal escarpment on the landward side of the gully and comprises a bank 2.4m in thickness by 0.4m in height, which is flanked externally by two interlocking quarry scoops up to 3.4m in breadth and 0.4m in depth. Tapering into a narrow finger of rock at the seaward end, the fort measures a maximum of 56m in overall length from NE to SW by 17m transversely on the NE (0.036ha), but the occupiable area is much smaller, comprising little more than the floor of a shallow gully 9m broad sloping gently down to the rear of the wall (87 sq m = 0.0087ha).
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 31 August 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC0182
Note (10 December 2021)
The location, classification and period of this site have been reviewed and changed from PROMONTORY FORT (PERIOD UNASSIGNED).
