Holburn Head
Promontory Fort (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Holburn Head
Classification Promontory Fort (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 8571
Site Number ND17SW 1
NGR ND 1085 7155
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/8571
- Council Highland
- Parish Thurso
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Caithness
- Former County Caithness
ND17SW 1 1085 7155.
(ND 1085 7155) Fort (NR)
OS 1:10,000 map, (1976)
Torfeus (1866) mentions that in the beginning of the 11th century, Count Moddan quartered his army at Thurso... He adds that Moddan had his camp on the promontory of Thurso - 'promontario Thorsnesia' ie. Holburnhead.
R MacKay 1829; T Torfaeus 1866; Name Book 1872.
The wall, now ruinous, is constructed of the local shaley slabs and appears to have been 7 to 8ft thick. In several places the outer face is exposed to a height of 2 to 3ft. The entrance is aligned on a 60 yd wide approach fringed by deep fissures and chasms.
RCAHMS 1911, visited 1910.
A fort formed by a broad wall cutting off a precipitous headland.
R W Feachem 1963.
The wall of this fort is spread to a fairly consistent width of about 6.0m, and can be seen in mutilations to be composed partly of large quantities of earth, suggesting that it has been a rampart faced on either side with stones. The inner face of small slabs set vertically can be seen intermittently to the NW of the entrance, and the footings of the outer face can be seen in the same stretch giving a wall thickness of 5.3m. The outer face is occasionally visible to a height of about 0.7m and consists of small slabs set into the bank at an angle of up to 45, giving the impression of a considerable batter. Although there has probably been a batter, this effect may be mainly due to the compression or collapse of the core material allowing the face to slip inwards. No structural details of the entrance, about 5.0m wide, are visible. The outer 'rampart' may not be a defensive work but may be due to natural causes.
Surveyed at 1:10 000.
Visited by OS (N K B) 21 October 1964 and (A A) 20 April 1972.
No change to the previous report.
Visited by OS (N K B) 19 August 1981.
Immediately seaward of the inner of the two parallel chasms, which reduce the width of the cliff-headland to about 55m, is a bank, 0.75m high, of loose material derived from a quarry-scoop behind it. There is then a stiff climb to the headland crowned by a wall, 0.5 to 0.9m high and 2.4m broad, of small flat slabs with a facing of larger ones. The entrance gap, now featureless, was in the middle. Nothing else is visible on the promontory except some erect, earthfast slabs on the cliff-top on the W side, immediately behind the rampart.
R G Lamb 1980; R J Mercer 1981.
Note (18 February 2015 - 18 May 2016)
This promontory fort is situated on Holborn Head, precipitous headland girt with sheer cliffs over 30m high and riven with two deep clefts that cut into the cliffs on the SE and across two thirds of the neck on the landward side. Strongly protected by these natural ditches, the artificial defences comprise a thick wall about 145m in length, which forms band of stony debris with occasional facing-stones extending across the full breadth of the promontory on the crest of the slope that rises sharply up behind the clefts; at the foot of this slope in the central sector, on the lip of the seaward cleft, an outer bank about 0.75m high can be seen, though opinion on its character is divided, some investigators omitting it (Mercer 198177, fig 31), others suggesting that it is derived from an internal quarry scoop (Lamb 1980, 73). The entrance is towards the WNW end of the main wall and the interior, which measures about 145m from NW to SE by up to 75m ransversely (0.8ha) and is partly bare rock, is featureless.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2826
