Scotland's hillforts were in existence as fortified hilltop villages, and defensive refuges for entire communities since the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. A calculation by some experts puts the number at almost 1,700, but it does depend on your definition of a hillfort of course. When the Romans arrived, and took England and Wales, they did attempt to take as much of Scotland as they could, for the glory of ruling all Britannia, and to punish potential raiding Picts. Despite numerous attacks, invasions, and victories, the colonial moves into Scotland's south, and the central belt, were not long lasting. Causing of course the eventual building of the magnificent Hadrians' Wall, in 122AD.

 

After this, the areas close to what are now Scotland's border areas actually saw some pretty large hillforts such as Traprain Law, with populations in the hundreds, or even thousands, possibly thriving off trade with the Roman Empire.

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There are more pictures below

 

After the fall of Rome, Scotland was to see it's 3 or 4 then major ethnic or national groupings, use hillforts.

 

The Scots  were using sites, such as Dunadd in Argyll, famed for a evocative carving of a boar in the fort's rocks itself. Plus the footprint impression in the stone there, which later was regarded as the point where Scots kings were inaugurated in fashions similar to those recorded in Dark Ages Ireland. These Scots who in tales had arrived recently from Ireland were most noted for their saints in terms of history, such as St Columba. Whose religious orders in turn are noted for the creation of manuscripts such as the Book of Kells, a masterpiece of the time. These Scots who spoke a language similar to modern Scottish and Irish Gaelic were later to merge into the Pictish population, creating the Kingdom of Scotland. Before that though, in the the Early Dark Ages they were more centred and limited to the west, such as the aforementioned Argyll. 

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The Picts of the North, probably speaking a kind of Brythonic language, though that is not certain, also used plenty of hillforts. Burghead, and Tap o' Noth, the most notable Dark Ages sites. Both of which grew to substantial sizes, at least of hundreds of people living in them. With Burghead, having fierce animal carvings on stones or plaques around the great port of a hillfort, in it's case of bull motifs. Kind of indicating that there was still wealth, and cultural display in the Dark Ages.

 

The Central belt, and Southern Scotland, spoke a British very similar to what was spoken in Wales, and much of England, at this time, that became Welsh. With  maybe some Latin here, as of their Roman influences. So yes, British of course later became Welsh, as the Saxon language moved across southern Britain. It is likely these more southerly inhabitants of Scotland were just Picts, who had been more Romanised, or to put it another way, the Picts were just Britons who had not been Romanised.

 

As likely the mountains which split to a extent northern Scotland from the rest of Britain, and the bottle neck element of geography in Central Scotland had formed differences for Central and Northern Scotia, comparative to the rest of Britain, as even in and before the Roman era there were as mentioned in other pages of this website there were some unique factors up here across pre-history, like brochs, Atlantic roundhouses, and carved stone balls. With that Northern Scottish cultural development, affecting out onto the rest of Scotland south of these 2 major bottleneck affects (and affected by them vice versa), even onto what is now called the Southern Scottish uplands, as the mountains, rivers and tribes of Northern England (like the mighty Brigantes federation, and later Elmet and Northumbria, and Yorkshire and Lancashire,) also caused some strategic divides with the rest of Britain (Though those Southern Scottish areas were closer to the rest of Britain (especially Northern England)  in culture and distance as of there being less obstacles to links with there, than what the more northern portions of Alba had, to southern Britannia. Though of course all of Scotland had many unifying links with the rest of Britain (Wales and the regions of England), and Europe and the world of course, the nearer, and the more coastal, the stronger the connections, in those times)). Truly maybe rightly I am just there making a geographic determinist argument for the existence of Scotland, which may be history read backwards, but there is a correctness to that. The same can be done for England and Wales, in terms of Great Britain. .. 

 

Well the Britons of southern Scotland (Central Scotland and areas closer to Hadrians Wall), were known as the Old North, or Hen Ogledd, in Medieval Welsh folklore, used hillforts as well. What are now Edinburgh Castle, and Dumbarton Castle, "the Rock", likely a couple of their bases. In addition, the hillforts of the borders like Traprain Law. It has been wondered if the Rock for example was one of the 40 or so cities or bases, mentioned as important in some Arthurian folklore, and in Roman sources, about the Picts and Britons, as of similar terms to that name being alluded to.

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Later these ethnicities were to merge into the Kingdom of Scotland. Though hillforts did have a part to play then as well.

 

The Picts as I say, have mighty bragging rights, as of course they held off the Romans. These a empire, the greatest in European history, that was partly only blocked from going further south from North Africa, by the Sahara desert. Partly blocked by going further east as of the large ancient empire of Persia, and the Arabian desert, plus the Caspian, and Black Sea, the Caucasus, and the Danube, and Rhine, and the thus well protected large tribes and nations on the other side of those boundaries. But all that blocked them off from taking Scotland were some rivers you can easily bypass or cross by foot at some points. What a achievement, though then again it was likely the protection of the Grampian Mountains that helped in their case, and the rivers are very deep at some points, but even then a amazing achievement, and yes it likely it was not hillforts responsible for holding the Romans off, but it was a land of hillforts.

 

Then again there is the brilliant story of Burnswark hillfort in Southern Scotland. It is a site that is a hillfort that sits on the Scottish Southern Uplands, overlooking the Solway Firth a few miles below. A fort that commanded the area like a great palace overlooking a a span of land far and wide below, for sure. Well it has a Roman base stuck built on the side of it, and proof of artillery being fired at it, and proper artillery, not training stuff. So it seems this was the site of a exciting Roman attack on  native Iron Age Hillfort. So what other situations, peaceful and warfare related went on, is anyone's guess, or discovery to be made. Though certainly hillforts had their excitement in these times. Indeed the hillfort at Melrose, which was also historically a large fort, saw a Roman base below it, this is on the Eildon Hills, and there is a lack of remains of the large fort today, but it did have many finds there historically. 

 

Well there were more bragging rights for the Picts. Indeed the most important battle in Dark Ages Scotland, was in 685, when a mighty Saxon army, the largest and most powerful in England, came north from the leading kingdom in England, the area which had around half it's territory, Northumberland. The Battle of Dun Nechtain, saw the invaders well beaten, and flee, and from here the Picts seem to have united and expanded, under the Kingdom of Fortriu, which may have been based at Burghead. This was to such a extent that Dunbar and it's fort, in far south eastern Scotland, were the last bastion of Northumbria holding off Pictish raids. With the Picts able to destroy it in the 9th Century indicating their power up to here. Eventually even it was taken within the orbit of Scotland, officially in the 11th century. Dun Nechtain important as the word Dun, signifies a fort. Whether the fort was important to the battle is unsure but certainly the mention of a hillfort, was significant, as it as a name comes up in Irish and other annals. The fact the Anglo-Saxons were using Dunbar, means that all 4 major ethnic groupings in Scotland of the time were using hillforts. I am unsure if the later Vikings, so plentiful on the coasts and isles,  ever did, I can not think of any they used. Indeed they more attacked them. With Edinburgh and Dumbarton Castle being national properties, for so long you could claim every ethnicity Norman and later arrivals, that came to Scotland, used hillforts, even in their modern guise as tourist spots and all in between,  So of course even the most recent of arrivals, and even tourists, who have in a sense conquered Edinburgh Castle more than anybody. Just thought I would say that so nobody feels left out there. Though it is fun to think some or many of your ancestors used to use and live in these great hillforts, I think. 

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Dunbar may have followed Traprain Law, as a key site in the South East of Scotland, and again the word, Dun, is there, but this is as it was a fort.

 

Despite the name it is certain the Picts were the driving force for a united Scotland, despite the adoption of the Scots language of Gaelic. A language which was to replace old Pictish, in the Dark Ages, and the old British kind of Welsh language sometimes called Cumbric in southern Scotland over the course of the early second millennium (Cumbric possibly lasting a couple of centuries in remoter areas). Indeed when English was adopted by Scotland's kingdom more and more in the 14th Century it replaced Gaelic, not long after Gaelic in some south Scottish areas had replaced Welsh / Cumbric. It too was to see a long slow replacement, especially slower in areas further from the centre by what had become Scots English, and then a more British English, or even Global English as time went on. With some relatively smaller parts of the Gaelic speaking territory keeping Gaelic as a living language to now and the future as of continuing speaking it for so long. 

 

What also was significant was the arrival of the Vikings, and they seem to have encouraged the union of Scotland, as of their threats, raiding a number of bases, such as Burghead and Dumbarton Rock.

 

I would actually include Edinburgh Castle as a hillfort site. This rock bastion, with its cliff side drop from its walls, that stands positioned, head and shoulders above the bustling main street and centre of the city today. With it today beside the Medieval little alley ways, and gradient rising or dropping, sometimes curving or spinning round little narrow lanes called “wynds”. Plus there surviving underground tunnel like homes that amazingly existed under those streets, for the poor, amid the rich, and the bakers and builders and masons guilds. With it even further above the further away 18th Century grand buildings of the New Town, and 19th Century and 20th Century industrial and modern expansions. Well in the old Welsh Medieval stories it is the Camelot-like site, where the very Welsh named fort of Mynyddog Mwynfawr is. Where a spirited feast is held at a great hall within it’s palisades, before the battle. I mean it may have been Arthur’s seat’s fort, the other hill that overlooks the city,  rather than there, but who knows for sure. It is very likely Stirling Castle, a similarly placed location holding the route north, from the south, was a hillfort site at some time as well. .

 

The modern name Edinburgh I must add, is a Saxon mutation from the term Dun Eidyn which itself was likely a Celtic rendering of the term “fort of the Goddodin” and that old moniker gets a mention in the work too.

 

For Dunadd, today it sits as a 175 foot high rocky hillock, in reclaimed murky green dry lands. A geographical feature about 100-150 in width by 200-250 long in metres very approximately in size. In it's days, it sat on a promontory, or maybe a isle, it is uncertain what the landscape was like then, so a strongpoint defended by sea and ramparts. Indeed in more recent centuries it was surrounded by a great bog, that apparently would also be a aid for defence, if around in Dark Ages and likely so in Medieval times. In later years it was likely the Gaelic Irish Scots capital in Scotland, just after the Romans left Britain. Here there was the footprint shaped marking in the rocks, where their kings would be appointed in seemingly magical importance, placing their toes and such in it. It would sit by a drawing or carving of a boar. When these were actually placed here I am unsure. There is also a central citadel, for this stone ramparts fort, plus maybe up to 4 lines of defence, and it has a ancient well, maybe even of religious significance. 

 

Another great fort would be Dunottar. in between Stonehaven and Aberdeen is a ancient medieval trackway that leads from the coastal harbour of Stonehaven to the river and estuary port of Aberdeen. Is it is a important route as it is where the mountains cause this to be a bottleneck between itself and the coast. There has been a castle near Stonehaven, scenically placed above a clifftop promontory, called Dunottar Castle, since the Middle Ages. It or the very nearby Dunnicaer (I mention more of this below, with a representation of them) is also likely the site of a fort mentioned in the Annals of Ulster in 684, when a Pictish king defended off the “Kings of the Scots’” sieges.  Seeing the road is marked by Neolithic monuments it is likely it has always been a major route as of geography, and that there would have been a hillfort there in the Iron Age. Indeed William Wallace, and the Vikings, later had adventures set there as well. So there is proof that trackway, has existed between it and Aberdeen for drovers and more since the 12th Century, and likely earlier.

 

In Scotland in the 1800s, journals of the time saw a greater interest in hillforts. With research and thoughts about if the Caterhuns were like capitals of their areas in the ancient times.

 

These are the Caterthun hillforts not far from the modern coastal town of Montrose. Which from the forts, now covered in heather today, you can see around a dozen miles away roughly 300 metres lower in elevation. They both sits a high on moor-like hills today, and site themselves 1.5 Miles apart from each other up there.

 

Firstly there is the White Caterhun, and it has a huge dry stone inner wall, of pale stones, and a outer wall higher than a person, plus ditches, and well-guarded entrances. This fort covers a area of 7 hectares and was a good site to defend. Then not far from here is the Brown Caterthun, so named as of the heather around it. It has 6 lines of defence, enclosing a 79 by 61 metres area, with stone walls, and bank-like ramparts, and ditches. My story visits both the forts, of which the white one has a well, and the brown one a spring, so good for sieges you may say, unlike most hillforts. I mean did the ones with water sources have a special role, thats a thought, so they could survive sieges. Then again maybe not, siege warfare was unlikely in those days the experts say. As armies were not professional, so raiding groups of warbands were more common, with them needing to return home to farm their crops, rather than be able to sit far from their home bases, for long in big enough numbers. Though maybe a capital style site of a larger Iron Age, or Dark Ages kingdoms, could see sieges from similar sized societies. I have drawn a picture at the bottom of this page to indicate my imagining of them.

 

Another interesting hillfort site would be Perthshire's Dundurn, which in the late 9th Century was a scene of some dynastic battles between Pictish, and Gaelic claimants, for the throne, indeed the Pictish examples had become Gaels as of time in Ireland by now, according to the annals. So no doubt hillforts, were important in Dark Ages, and likely Iron Age Scotland.

Also Dundee has a fine site, Dundee Law. Which was 79 by 49 metres or so in area fort, on a formerly volcanic mound that sits in the middle of this port city as a natural landmark. It was a small Pictish settlement that overlooked the landscape, in the Iron Age, and fits with the fact that Dundee has Dun in it’s name. Roman pottery has also been found on the site indicating they may have used the site as a lookout post in the 1st Century.

So three of the 4 biggest cities in Scotland have associated forts, as Glasgow in a sense has Dumbarton, seeing after the Vikings raided the Rock’s groups, moved to Govan, so Glasgow really in the broad sense, I can just say that really.

But hillfort sites as the second millennium began were still in use in some situations, and when castles the proper stone type arrived with the Normans, many hillforts sites were to become castle sites. So today Dumbarton Castle, as of it becoming a castle, through the history of the Kingdom of Scotland, and through the history of the UK, as a coastal fort,  is still a site of a fortification. It even has claims to be the longest continually occupied military site on Earth, though these kinds of things are always full of asterisks, and such thing, and today it is actually a museum site. So anyhow that is my general overview of Scotland's hillforts. By the way, my story, the one in book form, you can buy as a e book, does enter into Scotland, and see some of it's fascinating things, that occur in it’s history, some of which are mentioned here in hillforts.co.uk

 

It is interesting that a lot of the sites I mention, are sites which became major castle sites.