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Carleton Hill
Fort (Prehistoric)(Possible)
Site Name Carleton Hill
Classification Fort (Prehistoric)(Possible)
Canmore ID 61992
Site Number NX18NW 6
NGR NX 12883 89238
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/61992
- Council South Ayrshire
- Parish Colmonell
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Kyle And Carrick
- Former County Ayrshire
NX18NW 6 1287 8924.
NX 1287 8924 The slight remains of a sub-rectangular fort, measuring about 52m NE to SW by 64m transversely, lie at the NE end of Carleton Hill. It appears to have consisted of two stone ramparts running slightly below the crest along the SW and SE flanks of the hill, utilising the natural outcrop on the south and west. The NW and NE sides are protected by steep natural slopes or rock faces. Cultivation has mutilated the ramparts, which are now visible as slight banks or scarps 0.7m to 1.3m high. There is no trace of an entrance or internal structures.
Visible on APs (RAF/106G/Scot/UK172: 4165-6); RCAHMS TS, 2 September 1954.
Visited by OS (JD) 11 November 1955
As described by OS (JD).
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (RD) 10 December 1972
The remains of this fort are generally as described, but the scarps are heavily denuded.
Visited by OS (JRL) 23 March 1977
(NX 1287 8924) Fort (NR) (remains of)
OS 1:10000 map (1979)
Field Visit (2 September 1954)
This site was included within the RCAHMS Marginal Land Survey (1950-1962), an unpublished rescue project. Site descriptions, organised by county, are available to view online - see the searchable PDF in 'Digital Items'. These vary from short notes, to lengthy and full descriptions. Contemporary plane-table surveys and inked drawings, where available, can be viewed online in most cases - see 'Digital Images'. The original typecripts, notebooks and drawings can also be viewed in the RCAHMS search room.
Information from RCAHMS (GFG) 19 July 2013.
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 (June 1981)
Carleton Hill NX 128 892 NX18NW 6
The rocky boss which forms the NE end of the summit of Carleton Hill, has been enclosed by a combination of a low stony bank on the SW and a low scarp on the SE, in conjunction with precipitous slopes on the NE and NW. The siting of the bank at the foot of the boss renders it improbable that these are the remains of the defences of a fort, as has been previously suggested.
RCAHMS 1981, visited June 1981
Note (3 April 2017)
This supposed fort was first identified from vertical aerial photographs in 1954 by Kenneth Steer, who believed that two parallel terraces that he observed on the SE flank of the summit, spanning the slope between two gullies that defined the NE and SW sides of the summit, were the 'seatings' for ramparts that had been removed by prolonged cultivation. Thus defined, it was sub-rectangular on plan, measuring internally about 80m from NE to SW by 70m transversely (0.55), and was accepted as the remains of a fort by OS surveyors in 1955 and surveyed at 1:2500 and 1:10,000 in 1972 and 1977 respectively, but subsequent RCAHMS investigators in 1981, while recognising that the summit might have been enclosed by a stony bank on the SW and a low scarp on the SE, in conjunction with precipitous slopes on the NW and NE, were unconvinced that these were the remains of a fort. Like its neighbour on Balsalloch Hill to the SW Carleton Hill has been extensively cultivated.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 03 April 2017. Atlas of Hillforts - SC0792
