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Girvan Mains
Fort (Prehistoric)
Site Name Girvan Mains
Classification Fort (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 62054
Site Number NX19NE 29
NGR NX 19026 99600
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/62054
- Council South Ayrshire
- Parish Girvan
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Kyle And Carrick
- Former County Ayrshire
NX19NE 29 19026 99600
NX 190 996. Cropmarks reveal a D-shaped fort on the rounded summit of Gallow Hill, 350m NNW of Girvan Mains farmhouse; it measures about 58 by 45m within the ditch up to 6m broad, and there are entrances on the NE and SW respectively.
RCAHMS 1983
NX 19026 99600 There is no surface trace of this enclosure on the highest, domed point of a field under plough at about 25m OD. The ditch circuit may have been complete; from the terminal points on the air photographs there is a moderate, approximately 20 to 25m, uncultivated slope down to the scarp edge of the raised beach. As such, this probable univallate work is not in a strong defensive position and suggests a settlement rather than a fort. No finds were made on perambulation, and the farmer at Girvan Mains reports nothing unusual in this area.
Visited by OS (JRL) 24 November 1980.
Note (1983)
Girvan Mains NX 190 996 NX19NE 29
Cropmarks reveal a D-shaped fort on the rounded summit of Gallow Hill, 350m NNW of Girvan Mains farmhouse; it measures about 58m by 45m within a ditch up to 6m broad, and there are entrances on the NE and SW respectively.
RCAHMS 1983
Note (1 May 2014 - 23 May 2016)
Nothing is visible of this fort on the low domed summit of Gallow Hill, which forms part of the coastal escarpment N of Girvan Mains. D-shaped on plan, it measures about 65m from NNE to SSW along its chord, which lies parallel to the escarpment, by 55m transversely (0.3ha) within a ditch up to 8m in breadth; allowing for a rampart some 5m in thickness, the interior would have extended to a little over 0.2ha. A clearly defined entrance lies on the SW, but there was possibly also a second entrance opposed to it on the NE; though the interpretation of the cropmarks at this point is a little unclear; although the outer edges of the ditch appear to turn in as if to define terminals to either side of a causeway, a narrower mark carries across the gap unbroken, though whether this represents an earlier ditch which has been deliberately filled to create an entrance causeway in a later phase, or a later blocking of this entrance, cannot be determined. There is however an arc of a relatively narrow outer ditch in this sector, though its course lies slightly eccentric to the inner ditch and again hints at the presence of several phases of enclosure on this hilltop.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC0794
