Durn Hill

Fort, Durn Hill.

Durn Hill, which attains a height of 651 ft OD stands immediately NE of Fordyce Hill, to which it is connected by a saddle, and the two form a conspicuous feature as they rise from the coastal plain two miles SW. of the coast at Portsoy. The flanks of Durn Hill slope gently down in all directions, and the summit area is only slightly domed. The nature of the hill, and also perhaps the distance its summit commands in all directions, make it a suitable place for a hill fort, but although it was indeed chosen for such a purpose the structure was not completed.

Three lines of defences were planned. The innermost, enclosing an area 660 ft in length and 350 ft in width of the most level and even part of the hilltop, is entirely in the form of a marker trench some 2 ft in width and up to one foot in depth. Although the general line is regular the trench continually varies in both width and depth. A gap 55 ft in width occurs in the SW. arc, and another of 10 ft in the NE. arc. A very slight upcast mound can be detected at certain places along the outer lip.

The second line is represented not by a marker trench but by a thin line of loose boulders. It lies at a distance varying from 35 ft to 85 ft outside the inner line and there are four gaps in it, one of 70 ft in the S. arc, one of 30 ft in the E. arc, one of 55 ft in the NE. arc and one of 20 ft in the SW. arc. At three places on this line work has begun on the next stage of construction. This is best seen on either side of the gap in the SW. arc where ditches have been started. These, which clearly show the work of separate gangs of excavators, are up to 3 ft in depth and 10 ft in width. The smaller spoil of earth and stones has been cast up along the outer lip to form mounds about one foot in height, while the larger boulders have been arranged along the inner lip on the line of the marking-out boulders. At one place in the S. arc traces of a built outer face can be distinguished, and lesser traces of similar work occur in the NW. arc.

The third line, which lies at distances varying from 35 ft to 135 ft outside the second, consists entirely of a marker trench in which there are several small gaps. It is notable that none occurs in the NE arc, where both the other lines are breached, but there is a gap of 10 ft in the S arc. It is probable that the only en trance to the fort was to be in this sector. The trench varies in width and depth with an average of about 3 feet and one foot respectively. It is thus a little larger than the inner one.

Boulders, stones and outcrops of white "Durn Hill Marble" are conspicuous all over the hill, and in the interior of the fort a great many can be seen protruding through the peat and among the heather. In two places circular arrangements of these White stones were noted which could possibly be described as hut circles, although there was no suggestion of regular faced walling in their random arrangement. One of them, measuring 27 feet in internal diameter, partly corresponds with the line of the median marking-out line of boulders at a point in the W. sector where the digging of the ditch had been begun. As the line of boulders impinged upon the circle it can be concluded that the latter was, if only perhaps by a little, the earlier structure. The other ring, 20 feet in internal diameter, lies inside the S. part of the fort.

571639. iii. SE ("Camp")

29th June 1956

NJ 5710 6383 As part of the Northern Picts Project surveys and excavations have been undertaken in an area stretching from Aberdeenshire to Easter Ross targeting sites that can help contextualise the character of society in the early medieval period in northern Pictland.

In May 2014 two forts near the site of the Gaulcross Pictish hoard were targeted to provide dating for the nearest fortified sites to the hoard site. The OS in 1961 suggested that the Durn Hillfort may be incomplete. Their survey described an incomplete rampart around the fort entrance and two shallow ‘marker’ ditches encircling the hill top. Feacham (1971) also suggested the fort was unfinished. The 2014 work targeted the ‘marker’ ditches. The trenches quickly established that the ditches are in fact palisade slots encircling the summit of Durn Hill. A slot in the inner line of defence identified charred material within the foundation trench. Charred material was subsequently radiocarbon dated to the Early Iron Age (Beta- 381815 2450 +/- 30 BP; 760–410 cal BC 95.4%). The 2014 work suggests that Durn Hill is an exceptionally well preserved fort in NE Scotland with much of both inner and outer palisades traceable on the surface encircling the hill with the SW area further marked by a short section of rampart and ditch.

Archive: University of Aberdeen

Funder: University of Aberdeen Development Trust in partnership with the Tarbat Discovery Centre

Gordon Noble and Oskar G Sveinbjarnarson – University of Aberdeen

(Source: DES)

This large enclosure occupies the summit of Durn Hill, which is a prominent rounded hill above Portsoy. Its perimeter comprises three roughly concentric lines, the inner and outer of which are probably the remains of palisade trenches, while the third lying between them comprises a low scarp for most of its circuit, accompanied over a distance of about 130m on the SW quarter by an external ditch with a counterscarp bank; the ditch, which is in the order of 3m in breadth by 0.9m in depth, is rough and irregular with several undug causeways that may reflect the division of labour between separate work gangs. Apparently the remains of an unfinished rampart, the larger stones lie along the inner lip of the ditch, and a gap at the SW angle is probably an original entrance. The palisade trenches are between 0.6m and 0.9m in breadth and up to 0.3m in depth, the inner broken by gaps on the NE and behind the entrance through the unfinished rampart on the SW. While there are several small gaps in the line of the outer on the E and SE, only a gap on the SW, where the outer line diverges outwards from the others is certainly the remains of an entrance. The only features visible within the interior are two low, stony ring-banks, one immediately to the rear of the northern end of the unfinished rampart and ditch, and the other further into the interior in the SW quadrant.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 19 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2958

The classification, location and period of this site record have been reviewed as part of record revision work carried out by HES Designations.

Visited by HES Designations (R McDonald), 9 November 2021.