<< Text Pages >> Walls Hill Fort - Hillfort in Scotland in Renfrewshire
Submitted by AstroGeologist on Wednesday, 08 May 2019 Page Views: 1359
Iron Age and Later PrehistorySite Name: Walls Hill Fort Alternative Name: Walls Hill Oppidum, Walls Hill, North Castle WallsCountry: Scotland County: Renfrewshire Type: Hillfort
Nearest Town: Johnstone Nearest Village: Howwood
Map Ref: NS4117058800
Latitude: 55.796311N Longitude: 4.535156W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
Internal Links:
External Links:
Hillfort in Renfrewshire
Walls Hill Fort is a large double period Iron Age Hill Fort that occupies a steep-sided Lava Plateau in the Renfrewshire Hills.
The summit of the Fort ranges between 220m~230m above sea level, and has steep rocky slopes and cliffs between 6m~9m in height, protecting the NW, NE & SE. To the SW it forms a grassy slope down to the surrounding land. It is Pear shaped and measures approximately 460m x 200m. At 7.5ha, Walls Hillfort is one of the largest pre-historic enclosures in Scotland, exceeded in area by only 3 other forts, leading some Archaeologists to think it was probably an Oppidium.
The Southern half of the Fort is comparatively level while parts of the Northern half is more uneven. Remains of a Rampart can be traced along the North parts of the East and West sides of the plateau, which was once a continuous Rampart that originally bordered the whole of the plateau. This wall is about 5m in thickness and about 50cm in height. In 1837 "Andros Crawfurd" noted that at the Southern end of the Fort the wall stood at 1.5m in height internally.
Excavated by "F.Newall" in 1956, he discovered post-holes of two successive round-houses, where there had also been later medieval occupation. In 1970, a struck flake of Green Flint was recovered from a runnel just outside the main entrance to the Fort by "A.S. Newall"
"F.Newall" states that it was probable that the initial occupation of this site ended with the arrival of the Romans. However, his excavations showed that between the fourth and eleventh, centuries, the site was re-occupied. A final occupation took place in the 14th century, when a farm house was constructed on top of Walls Hill.
For more information : Canmore ID 43011
You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page. To see the most up to date information please register for a free account.
Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.
Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
The above images may not be of the site on this page, they are loaded from Geograph.
Please Submit an Image of this site or go out and take one for us!
Click here to see more info for this site
Nearby sites
Click here to view sites on an interactive OS mapKey: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed
Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)
To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.
Turn off the page maps and other distractions
Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
3.3km NE 38° Craigston Wood Menhir* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NS4332961360)
3.8km NE 38° High Craigenfeoch Rock Art* Rock Art (NS43616168)
4.4km ENE 69° Gleniffer Braes Menhirs* Standing Stones (NS45356026)
4.4km SSW 213° Cuff Hill* Chambered Cairn (NS386552)
4.5km WNW 301° Clochodrick Stone* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (NS37366127)
4.8km N 355° Barr Hill Fort Hillfort (NS40946365)
5.0km SW 219° Four Stones (North Ayrshire) Stone Circle (NS379550)
5.2km W 270° Loch Winnoch Crannog Crannog (NS3600358999)
5.5km NW 312° Dun Bower Hillfort (NS3721962579)
6.1km NW 326° Lawmarnock Cup Marks Rock Art (NS3794264004)
6.8km WNW 295° Knockmade Tumulus Barrow Cemetery (NS35126184)
7.0km NNW 343° Broom Cist Cist (NS39356552)
7.5km N 352° Back O' Hill Farm Cup Marked Stone Rock Art (NS40456623)
7.7km N 350° Houston Tumulus Barrow Cemetery (NS40066640)
7.8km N 350° Houston South Mound Cairn (NS4010066487)
8.1km W 273° Dun Connel Hillfort (NS3311459497)
8.2km NNW 339° Law Hill Dun Hillfort (NS38506659)
8.3km SE 133° Moyne Moor* Cairn (NS471529)
8.5km SE 128° Covenanter's Stone* Stone Circle (NS47735333)
8.6km S 182° Thougritstane* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (NS40575024)
9.0km NE 53° Barochan Cross* Ancient Cross (NS48556395)
9.2km W 260° Ladyland Barrow Barrow Cemetery (NS32015759)
9.2km WNW 285° Glenward Cairn Cairn (NS32356159)
9.4km ESE 106° Duncarnock Hillfort Hillfort (NS50105590)
9.5km N 349° Sewn Dun Hillfort (NS39766816)
View more nearby sites and additional images