Dunearn is a hill fort located south south east of

Nairn Nairn (; gd, Inbhir Narann) is a town and royal burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It is an ancient fishing port and market town around east of Inverness, at the point where the River Nairn enters the Moray Firth. It is the tradit ...

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

, Scotland. It is situated on a steep-sided hill called Doune rising to approximately above

ordnance datum In the British Isles, an ordnance datum or OD is a vertical datum used by an ordnance survey as the basis for deriving altitudes on maps. A spot height may be expressed as AOD for "above ordnance datum". Usually mean sea level (MSL) is used fo ...

just south of Dulsie Bridge (which provides a modern crossing of the River Findhorn) in the parish of Ardclach."Dunearn"

Canmore Canmore may refer to: * Canmore (database), a Scottish national online database of ancient monuments; *Canmore, Alberta, a town in Canada; *the House of Dunkeld, a royal house that ruled Scotland in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, including **Mal ...

. Retrieved 27 May 2018. The site commands uninterrupted views in all directions of the valley of the Findhorn including towards the pass of Streens in the west, which leads to upper Strath Dearn.

Etymology

The modern name, which is shared by a nearby farm is from the Scottish Gaelic, ''Dùn Éireann'' meaning "Hill(fort) on the Findhorn". Although Gaelic in origin the derivation of the name of the River Findhorn itself is not absolutely clear.

Watson Watson may refer to: Companies * Actavis, a pharmaceutical company formerly known as Watson Pharmaceuticals * A.S. Watson Group, retail division of Hutchison Whampoa * Thomas J. Watson Research Center, IBM research center * Watson Systems, make ...

(1926) states that it is derived from ''Fionn Èire'', meaning "white Ireland" which "doubtless refers to the white sands of the estuary". The

dative In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a ...

''Èireann'' gave rise to the use of the anglified 'earn' or 'erne' in other local names such as Invererne, Cullerne and Earnhill.

Structure

The slopes up to the fort are steep from all directions save the west. The summit is S-shaped and was surrounded by two parallel walls which closely followed the contour that delineates the summit plateau. The visual evidence of the inner rampart is simply scattered stones and boulders along with some evidence of vitrification, suggesting that the fort may have been burned at some point in its history. The outer wall lies about beyond the inner and is a "mere crest-line, dotted rather sparsely with stones and boulders". The proximity of the two walls to one another suggests it was designed as a single structure with stabilising timbers in the centre. The entrance lies to the south west and the enclosed area is roughly in extent. Remains of Dunearn Fort to the left with Dulsie Farm buildings centre right

Remains of Dunearn Fort to the left with Dulsie Farm buildings centre right

Local comparisons

Dunearn is one of a group of larger, more open, structures such as

Craig Phadrig Craig Phadrig (Scottish Gaelic: Creag Phàdraig, meaning Rock of Patrick) is a forested hill on the western edge of Inverness, Scotland. A hill fort on the summit is generally supposed to have been the base of the Pictish king Bridei mac Maelcho ...

, which is thought to have been constructed in the 4th Century CE and Ord Hill of Kessock, both to the west near modern-day

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

. There are various smaller structures in the area, such as

Doune of Relugas The Doune of Relugas is a hill fort located south south west of Forres in Moray, Scotland. It is situated on a rocky knoll rising to approximately above ordnance datum and forming the south east part of the promontory at the confluence of the R ...

, and Dun Earn lower down the Findhorn valley and

Dun Evan Dun Evan or the Doune of Cawdor is a hill fort located south west of Cawdor in the Highland area of Scotland. It is situated on a rocky hill that rises to above ordnance datum between the valleys of the River Nairn and its tributary the Allt De ...

and

Castle Finlay A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

in the Nairn valley. The existence of another large hill fort at Cluny Hill in Forres, which extends to was confirmed in 2017.Isaksen (2017) p. 37

Modern uses

It is thought that the relatively level summit of the hill was farmed for many years until 1906, including ploughing and it is likely that the stone remains of the fortification are "slight" as a result. An artillery base was established in the fort during the Second World War.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* RCAHMS Emergency Survey.(1943
Manuscripts (vol.2)
* Feachem, R. (1963b) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. 1st. London. Page(s): 140 RCAHMS Shelf Number: E.2.FEA * Isaksen, Leif (2017
The Hilltop Enclosure on Cluny Hill, Forres description, destruction, disappearance".
Lancaster University. Retrieved 28 May 2018. * * Watson, W. J. (1994) ''The Celtic Place-Names of Scotland''. Edinburgh. Birlinn. . First published 1926. {{River Findhorn Hill forts in Scotland Vitrified forts in Scotland Archaeological sites in Highland (council area) Iron Age sites in Scotland