Hillforts in Scotland

Hillforts in Scotland are earthworks, sometimes with wooden or stone enclosures, built on higher ground, which usually include a significant settlement, built within the modern boundaries of Scotland. They were first studied in the eighteenth century and the first serious field research was undertaken in the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century there were large numbers of archaeological investigations of specific sites, with an emphasis on establishing a chronology of the forts. Forts have been classified by type and their military and ritual functions have been debated.

They were introduced into Scotland during the Bronze Age from around 1000 BCE. The largest group are from the Iron Age, with over 1,000 hillforts, mostly below the Clyde-Forth line, most of which were abandoned during the period of Roman occupation of Britain. There are also large numbers of vitrified forts, which have been subjected to fire, many of which may date to this period. After Roman occupation in the early Middle Ages some hillforts were reoccupied and petty kingdoms were often ruled from smaller nucleated forts using defensible natural features, as at Edinburgh and Dunbarton.

The first major study of Scottish hillforts was undertaken by General William Roy and published as The Military Antiquities of the Romans in Britain in 1793. However, Roy recorded only native forts like Burnswark that had a close relationship to Roman constructions (in this case probably Roman practice siege camps), or which he wrongly attributed to be Roman in origin.George Chalmers' (1742–1825) first volume of Caledonia (1807) contained an arbitrary list of forts, but recognised that defences at Burnswark were not just in anticipation of Roman invasion, but to defend against native threats. He also recognised some of the relationships between major and subordinate sites, and the importance of intervisibility between sites. In 1851 the Scots-Canadian Daniel Wilson was the first person to use the term "pre-historic" in English, but he was dismissive of the significance of hillforts. The first serious field research in Scotland was undertaken by David Christison, in the decade preceding his Rhind lectures of 1894. This was the first comprehensive survey of hillforts in a region of Britain. It was critical of previous neglect of the subject and cautious in labelling all forts as prehistoric. His work was published in 1898 as Early Fortification of Scotland and became the model for subsequent national and regional studies.

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