Muncraig Heugh
Settlement (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Muncraig Heugh
Classification Settlement (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Doo Cave
Canmore ID 63970
Site Number NX64NW 7
NGR NX 6028 4615
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/63970
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Borgue
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Stewartry
- Former County Kirkcudbrightshire
NX64NW 7 6028 4615.
(NX 6028 4615) Earthwork (NR)
OS 6" map (1957)
A small fort formed by a semi-circular rampart and inner ditch with a causewayed entrance on the N.
RCAHMS 1914, visited 1912; F R Coles 1893
A small settlement or homestead consisting of a semi-circular ditch with an outer rampart of earth and stone abutting on to steep cliffs on the SW and enclosing an area c. 24.0m by 20.0m. The entrance, from the N, is by a causeway through the rampart and ditch. There are no internal features.
The absence of an inner rampart, level interior and exterior leave no doubt that this is not a fort, but a small settlement or homestead.
Resurveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (RD) 3 February 1971.
Field Visit (2 October 1951)
This site was included within the RCAHMS Marginal Land Survey (1950-1962), an unpublished rescue project.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.
Note (20 December 2013 - 23 May 2016)
This visible defences of this small promontory work comprise a ditch some 5.5m in breadth with an external bank over 6.6m in thickness, which form a semicircular arc resting on the cliff-edge to either side of a narrow promontory reduced to little more than a spine of rock. The latter is evidently heavily eroded and was once considerably bigger, but in 1951 RCAHMS investigators were of the opinion that a wall had once stood along the inner lip of the ditch and that cultivation had probably also obliterated an outer ditch. Nevertheless in its present form the interior within the visible ditch measures a maximum of 24m from NW to SE along the chord formed by the cliff-edge by 20m transversely (0.02ha). A causeway across the ditch on the N probably marks the position of the entrance in the middle of the arc of defences.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC0246
