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Range Castle
Fort (Iron Age)
Site Name Range Castle
Classification Fort (Iron Age)
Alternative Name(s) Rangecastle Hill; Holmains
Canmore ID 66132
Site Number NY07NE 8
NGR NY 0864 7639
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/66132
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Dalton
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Annandale And Eskdale
- Former County Dumfries-shire
NY07NE 8 0864 7639
(NY 0864 7639) Range Castle (NAT)
Camp (NR)
OS 6" map (1957)
Range Castle [NAT]
Fort [NR]
OS (GIS) AIB, December 2007.
This fort is situated on a ridge on the W side of Annandale and consists of a largely rock-cut ditch (averaging 30' in width and 7' - 8' in depth) with accompanying banks, surrounding an area which measures some 300' (91.5m) in diameter and includes a rocky boss. The latter is defended by the remains of walls, the smallest, highest, innermost enclosure measuring about 80' (24.3m) in diameter.
RCAHMS 1920, visited 1912; R W Feachem 1963.
A fort measuring internally 96.0m N-S by 84.0m within an earth-and-stone rampart, rock-cut ditch and counterscarp. On the SE outside these defences, a short stretch of ditch possibly represents an unfinished work. Within the fort are the remains of a small rampart up to 1.1m high, forming an enclosure measuring 52.0m N-S by 40.0m. Its entrance, on the W, is aligned with the entrance through the outer defences. Around the summit are the remains of a stone wall up to 3.0m wide and 0.4m high. It is indistinct but encloses an area measuring 37.0m N-S by 25.0m and probably represents a different phase of occupation. No positive entrance is visible. The interior of the whole site is featureless.
Resurveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 21 June 1966 and (DWR) 21 February 1973.
Scheduled as 'Range Castle, fort... on the northernmost peak of a ridge on the W side of the River Annan, at 195m above sea level.'
Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 7 November 2007.
Note (1997)
NY 0864 7639 NY07NE 8
Listed as fort.
RCAHMS 1997.
Note (20 May 2014 - 31 August 2016)
This fort occupies a hillock on the escarpment forming the W flank of Annandale and displays at least three separate lines of enclosure. The principal line of defence, and for the purposes of the Atlas, that of the fort, is the outermost, comprising twin ramparts, the inner of which still stands up to 2.5m above the bottom of a medial rock-cut ditch at least 5m in breadth; there is another short length of ditch lying outside this line on the SE. These defences enclose an area of 0.6ha, but within the interior, which rises towards the summit, there is not only a stony scarp up to 1.1m high enclosing an area measuring 52m from N to S by 40m transversely (0.16ha), but on the summit itself an enclosure measuring 37m from N to S by 25m transversely (0.06ha) within a band of rubble 3m in thickness by 0.4m in height. The main entrance to the fort is on the W, where there is a causeway across the ditch and a trackway leads up to a gap in the scarp forming the middle line of enclosure within interior, but there is also another causeway across the ditch on the SE.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 31 August 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC0849
