Surveying Promontory Forts along the North Solway Coast, Dumfries & Galloway

In 2002, AOC Archaeology Group prepared the publication of a survey of sixteen promontory forts along the Galloway coast. This research project had been carried out between 1996 and 2000 following the Coastal Assessment Survey of the North Solway Coast. The threat of localised coastal erosion at many of these sites, together with the impact of agriculture, development and tourism, had led to the recommendation within the Coastal Assessment for a further programme of surveying and monitoring. As a way of establishing more information on the morphology and condition of the Galloway promontory forts, the objectives of the survey comprised:

• creating an accurate measured plan of each selected site
• measuring the extent of erosion areas within each site
• determining the cause of erosion at each site
• presenting a baseline of data to aid future site assessments
• developing research priorities based on the survey results

The resulting site plans were published in 2003 in the Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society.

Monitoring undertaken as part of the pilot Shorewatch scheme had revealed ongoing erosion at one of the promontory forts identified as most at risk from coastal erosion. This site, Carghidown, was thus selected for a research excavation.

AOC Project Manager: Ronan Toolis
Client: Historic Scotland