 Plan of the remains of the fort drawn by General William Roy and published in 1793 | |
  Burghead Fort Shown within Scotland | |
| Coordinates | 57°42′13″N 3°29′50″W / 57.7036°N 3.4971°W |
|---|---|
| Type | Promontory fort |
| Length | 1,000 feet (300 m) |
| Width | 600 feet (180 m) |
| Area | 12.4 acres (5.0 ha) |
| History | |
| Periods | Iron Age, Pictish |
Burghead Fort was a Pictish promontory fort on the site now occupied by the small town of Burghead in Moray, Scotland. It was one of the earliest power centres of the Picts[1] and was three times the size of any other enclosed site in Early Medieval Scotland.[2] The fort was probably the main centre of the Pictish Kingdom of Fortriu, flourishing with the kingdom itself from the 4th to the 9th centuries.[2]
Burghead is not recorded in any surviving annals[3] and its name in the Pictish language is not recorded,[4] but it may be the Pinnata Castra that features in Ptolemy's 2nd-century Geography.[3] The original defences may date from the Iron Age but were substantially rebuilt during the early historic period.[5]
The remains of the fort were largely destroyed when the harbour and town of Burghead were remodelled in the early 19th century, but its layout is recorded in a plan drawn by William Roy and published posthumously in 1793.[6] Sections of its inner ramparts still stand up to 9.8 feet (3.0 m) high,[4] and a small section of the innermost outer rampart survives as the "Doorie Hill".[7] The fort's underground ritual well can be visited and the site has a visitor centre where important Pictish sculptures from the fort are displayed.[8]
- ^ Foster 2014, p. 46.
- ^ a b Fraser 2009, p. 51.
- ^ a b Foster 2014, p. 47.
- ^ a b Driscoll 2007, p. 58.
- ^ Konstam 2010, pp. 21–22.
- ^ Harding, Dennis (2012). Iron Age Hillforts in Britain and Beyond. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 171–172. ISBN 978-0199695249. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
- ^ "Burghead Fort". Moray Sites and Monuments Record. Aberdeenshire Council. Archived from the original on 31 August 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
- ^ Foster 2014, p. 160.