<< Our Photo Pages >> Dunadd Fort - Hillfort in Scotland in Argyll

Submitted by SolarMegalith on Monday, 15 July 2013  Page Views: 25814

Iron Age and Later PrehistorySite Name: Dunadd Fort
Country: Scotland County: Argyll Type: Hillfort
Nearest Town: Lochgilphead  Nearest Village: Kilmartin
Map Ref: NR8367693573  Landranger Map Number: 55
Latitude: 56.085860N  Longitude: 5.478517W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 5 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 2 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 5

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I have visited· I would like to visit

hidebasket visited on 28th Aug 2024 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 5 Access: 4

Uralsdaughter visited on 19th Aug 2018 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 5 Access: 3

Anne T visited on 19th Jul 2018 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 5 Access: 4 Dunadd Fort, with well, footprint, boar carving and cup marked rock: I confess to seeing this site 'from a distance' as the path was too steep for me to feel comfortable. Whilst I say 'this is a short walk on a footpath', the climb is reasonably short, but steep. Also, being on the tourist trail, this site was busy, busy, busy even at 10am. We bumped into the “Tour of Tor” minibus again (saw them at the Dunchraigaig Cairn last night), who pulled into the car park just after us. After going some way up the track and seeing the reproduction of the boar carving in the cottage to the left of the track by the gate up to the fort, I decided it was too steep for me. Even Andrew, when he came back down, said he’d had to put his hands out several times to steady himself on the slope, so even he struggled a little. As well as the fort, this site also has a well and a footprint and carved rock. Andrew said the guide for the Sacred Tour actually took his boot and shoe off, placed it in the footprint and enacted the old oath. Wish I’d seen that! Andrew commented on finding what he thought was a ‘look out post’ – a small chamber with a lintel over; the well now has a stone slab over it. We’ve yet to sit down and map out where the photographs were taken, so I can tie them in with the plan above.

SolarMegalith visited on 28th Apr 2013 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 5 Access: 4

custer visited on 8th Jul 2012 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 4 Fantastic can see where other walls have been great view over the whole valley.

jeffrep visited on 4th Sep 2007 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 5 Access: 2

megalithicmatt visited on 1st Sep 2005 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 3 Saw the footprint and watched the sunset.

coin AngieLake hamish Bobeds have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 2.14 Ambience: 4.71 Access: 3.43

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by mickb1953 : Well worth the short climb - beautiful 360 degree views of argyll and isles from top. Three other carvings within a metre are a boar, an inscription in ogham and a rock cut basin (Vote or comment on this photo)
Dunadd, is an Iron Age and later hillfort near Kilmartin in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, a little north of Lochgilphead. At one time an island, it now lies inland near the River Add.

The surrounding land, now largely reclaimed, was formerly boggy and known as the Mòine Mhòr 'Great Moss' in Gaelic. This no doubt increased the defensive potential of the site.

Originally occupied in the Iron Age, the site later became a seat of the kings of Dál Riata. It is known for its unique stone carvings below the upper enclosure, including a footprint and basin thought to have formed part of Dál Riata's coronation ritual. Though it is an assumption only and not attested in contemporary written sources, similarly as the legend saying that Dunadd was the first location of Stone of Scone in Scotland.

On the same flat outcrop of rock is an incised boar in Pictish style, and in inscription in the ogham script. The inscription is read as referring to a Finn Manach and is dated to the late 8th century or after.

Source: Wikipedia

Note: Monuments & kings, Dunadd guided walk, Weds July 17th. Also a guided walk round the sites of Kilmartin Glen on Wednesday July 24 and children's activities on Thursdays.
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Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by SolarMegalith : Remains of the citadel on the summit of a hill (photo taken on April 2013). (Vote or comment on this photo)

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by SolarMegalith : Entrance to Dunadd fort (photo taken on April 2013). (Vote or comment on this photo)

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by coin : The entrance. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by SolarMegalith : Dunadd fort - view from the south (photo taken on April 2013). (Vote or comment on this photo)

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by andy_h : Footstone at Dunadd Fort, Kilmartin Valley, Argyll. (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by coin : Wall detail, with the replica footprint stone and the standing stone further off in the background.

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by SolarMegalith : Dunadd became the capital of a first Scottish kingdom and falled to the Picts in 736 AD. View of the rampart (photo taken on April 2013).

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by custer : Footprint for ancient kings of Dalriada.

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by AngieLake : Download from camcorder film of inauguration level on Dunadd fort, showing: basin [foreground]; rock with footprint and boar carving [left]; and long rock with natural seat at right-angles to it [rear]. (1 comment)

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by AngieLake : Another view of Dunadd fort's well. I remember reading that the inauguration stone on the higher level was still in use in the 15th century, so maybe this well was restored several times over the centuries to provide a supply of water for the crowds who gathered for these ceremonies? (Taken in 2002, and pics are beginning to fade.)

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by Antonine : 2008

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by Antonine

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by Antonine

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by Antonine

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by Antonine

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by Antonine

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by Antonine

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by Antonine

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by Antonine (2 comments)

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by Anne T : Even though it was bright sunlight, usually good for showing contrast, the carving of the boar is now very worn and hardly visible.

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by Anne T : The cup marked rock can be seen at the bottom centre of the photo and the footprint at the top of the second, paler grey sheet of rock also in the centre of the image.

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by Anne T : This carving of a boar, a replica of the one within the fort (now much worn) is in the garden of the cottage near the gate leading into the fort.

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by Anne T : Standing at the top of the fort looking at the sloping path down. Even husband Andrew, the sure-footed 'mountain goat' needed his hands to steady him down the slope.

Dunadd Fort
Dunadd Fort submitted by Anne T : The well, now covered with one flagstone which is partially falling in.

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"Dunadd Fort" | Login/Create an Account | 6 News and Comments
  
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Talk, Edinburgh: Palaeolandscapes of Mòine Mhór project: Dunadd and its environs by Andy B on Thursday, 14 December 2017
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Next FMSG (First Millennia Studies Group) Lecture: Commercial Units and the latest Research!

The next lecture in the 2017 – 2018 seminar series will be on Tuesday the 9th January 2018.

Not one, but three exciting talks!

Ronan Toolis “The Carnoustie Late Bronze Age hoard and its context”

Lindsay Dunbar “Between Broxmouth and Dryburn Bridge”

Andy Bicket “Palaeolandscapes of Mòine Mhór project: Dunadd and its environs”

As usual, the lecture will be at 6:00pm in the Meadows Lecture Theatre in the Archaeology Department, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Edinburgh.

Please note that the building is locked at 18.00, so if you arrive late you will probably not be able to get in.

https://firstmillennia.wordpress.com/2017/12/14/next-fmsg-lecture-commercial-units-and-the-latest-research/
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Monuments & kings, Dunadd guided walk, Weds July 17th and other activities by Andy B on Monday, 15 July 2013
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Experience the archaeological history and extraordinary beauty of Kilmartin Glen, one of Scotland’s richest prehistoric landscapes. Join the Kilmartin House guides on Wednesday July 17 and visit Dunadd, once the seat of the Kings of Dal Riata.

Also acwalk through the Glen to visit the Bronze Age burial cairns, Temple Wood stone circle, Nether Largie Neolithic Chambered Cairn and the Nether Largie standing stonescon Wednesday July 24. 13.30-16.00. (see the nearby sites list)

For guided walks you can register for the walk at the museum shop on the day of the walk. Meet at the museum 13.00 and the guided walk will begin at 13.30 returning to the museum at approximately 16.00. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

Stout footwear recommended for all walks and don’t forget to pack your waterproofs.

Dog owners - Parts of the walk are not accessible for dogs (except guide dogs) and your guide may advise you to detour fields containing livestock.

Also children’s activities – Thursday July 18 and Thursday July 25 13.30 to 16.00
Children will have great fun ‘digging’ and learning to be an archaeologist by getting their hands dirty in our simulated dig. They may find a flint hand axe or a bronze brooch or even a comb made from antler!
Session lasts for 45 minutes. Children aged 4+

Children also have another opportunity to handle replica objects by ‘recording’ an object. Just like a real archaeologist, they will take measurements, write a description, draw and photograph the object. Children aged 5+, who should bring a camera.

The Museum Café is open from 10.00 until 17.30.
Website: http://www.kilmartin.org

Organiser: Kilmartin Museum
Booking details: Book for the walks at the Museum shop on the day.
Fee details: Both guided walk and children’s activities are free but donations welcome! Normal admission price applies if visiting the museum gallery: Adults £5, Children £2, Families £12.

Part of the Festival of British Archaeology 2013
http://www.archaeologyfestival.org.uk/events/231
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Was climate change responsible for driving ancient Scots out of glen? by Andy B on Wednesday, 19 November 2008
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A SCOTS religious site that predates the pyramids and Stonehenge may have been abandoned because of climate change, it was claimed yesterday.

Kilmartin Glen, in Argyll, has one of the most important concentrations of Neolithic and Bronze Age remains in Europe. The glen contains at least 350 ancient monuments, many of them prehistoric, including burial cairns, rock carvings and standing stones.

The most spectacular of the remains is the fortress of the Scots at Dunadd, capital of the kingdom of Dalriada.

But archaeologists have identified a period of almost 1,000 years in which no monuments were erected and the population there "diminished".

They claim this period is marked by the start of a colder, wetter climate.

Dr Alison Sheridan, an archaeologist and head of early prehistory at the National Museum of Scotland, who has studied Kilmartin Glen for more than 20 years, said:

"The earliest activity dates back to hunter-gatherers around 4,500BC, who left behind nothing more than a few pits, charcoal and some flint.

"It was a sacred landscape from at least as early as 3,700BC until as late as 1,100BC. It was a place for ceremony, for burying people and observing the movements of the sun and the moon.

"We are not too certain what happened between 1,100BC and around 200BC. A hoard of swords has been found and a few artefacts buried as gifts to the gods in the late Bronze Age between 1,000 and 750BC. But there are very few structures and no settlements.

Read more in The Scotsman
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Was-climate-change-responsible-for.4674280.jp
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Re: Dunadd by didcotian on Friday, 15 August 2008
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Condition:2
Ambience:4
Access:3
Accuracy:
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Re: Dunadd by AngieLake on Monday, 21 January 2008
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An extract from a description of Kilmartin Glen on the official website. (Copyright)

"Aside from the monuments described above, the Glen contains one of the most significant monuments in the whole of Scotland - Dunadd on the River Add. Whilst also yielding earlier prehistoric evidence, this fort is thought to have been constructed and occupied by the Dál Riata, a group of people who, from at least AD 500, held lands both in Northern Ireland and in Argyll. Rock carvings and artefacts from Dunadd show that this was a high-status site with wide social and economic relations. It may well be the site referred to in the late 7th century manuscript titled the Life of Columba as the caput regionis - the chief place of the region - and was probably a royal centre where Scotland's earliest kings were inaugurated. Recent research suggests that the presence of the Dál Riata here was not the large scale, single event migration it was once thought to be, but more a cultural, social exchange of people, ideas and power between lands connected, not divided, by sea.

Dunadd has been excavated on a number of occasions, yielding a large collection of artefacts, which further attest to its importance as revealed in historical documents. Other sites dating from the early historic period have been excavated - Loch Glashan Crannog is of particular note - adding to the picture of life during this time."

[It seems that original ideas of the migration of a tribe from Ireland to Dunadd may have changed since I visited in 2002.]

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Re: Dunadd by Anonymous on Saturday, 01 May 2004
Condition: 3
Ambience: 5
Access: 4
Remains of early Scots fort set on a commanding outcrop by the edge of the Crinan Moss. The location and the well-preserved rock marks of a boar make this a favoured spot. The nearby cup-and-ring marks as well as the remains in Kilmartin Glen make the journey worthwhile - round it off with a visit to the Kilmartin Centre for their audio-visual presentation and a fine tea.
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