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Hill Of Tillymorgan

Earthwork (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Hill Of Tillymorgan

Classification Earthwork (Period Unassigned)

Alternative Name(s) Tillymorgan; Cadger's Road

Canmore ID 18248

Site Number NJ63SE 14

NGR NJ 6592 3435

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/18248

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Aberdeenshire
  • Parish Culsalmond
  • Former Region Grampian
  • Former District Gordon
  • Former County Aberdeenshire

Archaeology Notes

NJ63SE 14 6592 3435

See also NJ63SW 25.

(NJ 6592 3435) Earthwork (NAT) (Site of)

OS 6" map, (1959)

The scant remains of a circular 'hill-slope encampment', 79m in diameter (information from OS 25" map, [1904]), in a weak defensive position on a NE slope. The defences comprise a ditch between inner and outer ramparts, originally palisaded (Meldrum 1959). The bank and ditch were quite perfect before they were removed before 1867 (ONB 1867). The camp is protected to the NW and E by lines of entrenchments (NSA 1845).

(See NJ63SW 25 for lines to NW.)

NSA 1845; Ordnance Survey Name Book (ONB) 1867; E Meldrum 1959.

[Crawford notes 'encampments' and 'earthworks' in both the NW and SE sides of Tillymorgan; see also NJ63SW 25]. 'Of the many fragments of earthworks on the south-east slopes I could see nothing though I walked over the ground. Already when the explanatory note on the engraved plan [by McRonald, 1789, reproduced by Crawford, pl. xx] was written, probably by Shand, the framers had "begun to carry off the earth of which the Rampart had been formed". The chief earthwork is semi-circular, and where the northern segment meets Cadger's road opposite the Mains of Tillymorgan, "there is", says the writer, "a Ditch and Rampart of the same Length and Dimensions as the Traverses of the Re-dykes [Raedykes] covering an opening of the works obliquely". This sounded promising, but I could see no trace of anything in the grass field where it must have been situated. The site, at the foot of a steep hill, is a most unlikely one for a Roman camp, though there is a parallel at Burnswark [Annandale, Dumfriesshire].

O G S Crawford 1949.

There is now no trace of this earthwork on a shelf in the hillside, or of the 'lines of entrenchment' to the E, but the description suggests a palisaded settlement.

Visited by OS (NKB) 1 April 1969.

(Name cited as Tillymorgan). The indicated location falls in an area of grassland and heather scrub at an altitude of about 265m OD.

NMRS, MS/712/63.

Vertical air photography: Jasair NJ63 10.88.025-6, flown 14 May 1988.

Information from Mrs M Greig (AAS), 6 October 1999.

Nothing is visible of this earthwork and its site lies in what is now an area of improved pasture on the E flank of Hill of Tillymorgan.

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS), 20 November 2002.

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