Mike Middleton
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wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
Mike Middleton
@wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
1.9K followers 1.2K following 390 posts
I work in archaeology and data science in Scotland.
https://journal.caa-international.org/articles/10.5334/jcaa.166
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wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
For #HillfortsWednesday here's an old favourite, a view of the timber laced rampart at Castle Law, Abernethy under excavation. Photographed by P M Macintyre in 1898.

📸HES

www.trove.scot/place/27917
The image shows an old black and whit photo, mounted on sepia coloured paper, with a thin red line, with arrows at each corner, framing the photograph. The photo shows the excavated rampart with a round ended shovel lent against it. Along the line of the dry stone wall there are holes where wooden beams where once located. There is rubble in the foreground, a layer of turf on top of the rampart and trees in the background.
July 16, 2025 at 7:59 AM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
The fort of Brae Brough, on Hoy, in Orkney, is a short distance north of the famous rock stack of the Old Man of Hoy. The fort is almost a rock stack itself with a 325m vertical drop along it’s seaward side.
www.trove.scot/place/1480
#HillfortsWednesday
📸 HES
This black and white image shows the flat platform and precipitous cliffs around the promontory fort of Brae Brough on Hoy in Orkney.
July 9, 2025 at 7:57 AM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
Tynron Doon, in Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland, commands a spur of Auchengibbert Hill and has at least three lines of massive ramparts and ditches with ramparts standing up to 6.5m height and rock cut ditches from 7 to 15m in breadth. #HillfortsWednesday

canmore.org.uk/site/65300/t...

📸 HES
A rather dark aerial photo of the fort covered in a thin dusting of snow. The snow highlights the ramparts and ditches and can be seen as particularly massive toward the right of the image. In the enter there is a central enclosure and to the left a smaller annex can be seen. On the steeper slopes to the top there is a plantation of pine trees.
June 11, 2025 at 7:13 AM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
Arbory Hill Fort, in South Lanarkshire, is one of the higher forts in Scotland. The inner stone-walled rampart has been inserted into the earlier bi-vallate fort, and the outer ramparts contain at least five entrances. #HillfortsWednesday

canmore.org.uk/site/47427/a...

📸HES
Aerial photo showing the three ramparts of Arbory Hill Fort in an open upland moorland.
June 4, 2025 at 8:50 AM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
Woden Law in the Scottish Boarders is a complex Iron Age fort with multiple phases of construction and remodeling and the fort is associated with earthworks outside the fort. The fort's relationship to these remains a question to be answered.

canmore.org.uk/site/58068

#HillfortsWednesday

📸HES
Aerial view of Woden Law fort int the Scottish Borders. The fort is in high pasture.
May 28, 2025 at 10:19 AM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
I'm sorry if my post read in this way. Here is a screenshot from our internal project management system showing the feedback is important and it is being taken seriously.
May 20, 2025 at 10:56 AM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
Here is your periodic reminder that Canmore is soon to be switched off. Please look at Canmore's replacement www.trove.scot and feedback your comments on functionality, using the feedback form, while you still can.
The original home page of the Canmore website showing the frontage of John Sinclair House, the former home of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.
May 14, 2025 at 11:32 AM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
Looking down from the rampart of Burnswalk, D&G, to the roman camp to the south of the fort. The Roman ballista platforms can be seen set in front of entrances which are wide enough for 40 people. This location on the rampart has been found to be saturated with lead shot. #HillfortsWednesday 📷my own
A beautiful sunny day looking out over a grassy green landscape and blue sky. The Roman fort can be seen as ramparts and ditches in the midground, and the ballista towers are round mounds in front of three gates.
May 14, 2025 at 7:36 AM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
For #HillfortsWednesday here is Carnac, Moredun aka Moncrieffe Hill or Moredun Top. Located near to Perth in Scotland the fort comprises at least four phases of construction.

canmore.org.uk/site/28025

📸 HES.
An aerial photo of the fort of the fort showing multiple enclosures within an opening in the forested landscape.
April 16, 2025 at 9:41 AM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
I visited the extraordinary Iron Age dun site of Bonnach Mor in Argyll last week which is located on a rock platform next to an incredible basalt dyke. Here is a very quick attempt at a reconstruction to give an idea of how it may have looked. canmore.org.uk/site/22579
A quick reconstruciton showing how the dun at Bonach Mor may have looked in the Iron Age. The dun sits on a platform at the center and the dyke is to the right. A woman stands in the forground looking up. Rays of sun stream over the top of the dyke. It is very sunny!
April 13, 2025 at 4:44 PM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
And here is another Iron Age #ADoorAbleThursday jamb and drawbar slot from Dun Chuain this morning.
Moss covered dry stone walls forming the doorway to an Iron Age Dun.
April 10, 2025 at 2:27 PM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
The hillfort of Dunadd this evening #HillfortsWednesday #Argyll #Scotland
The sun setting behind the hillfort
April 9, 2025 at 7:32 PM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
Iron Age door jamb and bar-hole from the dun, Druim An Duin, #Argyll, #Scotland today.
The image shows a close-up of the drystone elements on the west side of the southern doorway. Lush grasses and moss cover the entrance passage.
April 9, 2025 at 7:25 PM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
For #HillfortWednesday here is today's photo of the Iron Age / Early Medieval fort of Dun Chonallaich from the fort of Creag a'Chapuill, Argyll, Scotland.
The rocky crags of the fort are in the mid ground. There are trees to the left and across the entire landscape there is the orange hue of the moss.
April 9, 2025 at 11:13 AM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
I think I might be the last king of the day. #Argyll #Scotland
My booted foot next to the replica carved footprint at Dunadd that is said to have been a place of inauguration in the Early Medieval period. There are also two black dog legs.
April 8, 2025 at 7:50 PM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
The summit of the Iron Age Dun at Bonnach Mor, Argyll, which incorporates a huge basalt dyke, that runs from the dun to the sea. What a beautiful day to visit. So lucky ☺️
A woman sits os the flat grassy summit is an Iron Age dun. In the background a basalt dyke can be seen and behind this tha sea and the island of Ling.
April 8, 2025 at 3:22 PM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
Law Hill, Arnbathie near Scone in Scotland. View looking north over the ramparts to the chevaux de frise – stones set on edge supposedly designed to disrupt infantry and cavalry. canmore.org.uk/site/28116

📸 My own

#HillfortsWednesday
This view looks over the low grassy banks of the fort towards small upright stones set in the midground. The view continues, down the slope, to a copse of trees and then on to the wide Tay valley beyond. In the background the Cairngorms rise to the horizon.
April 2, 2025 at 8:08 AM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
Do you use Historic Environment Scotland's data? If so you need to know that Canmore is being retired this June.

Trove (www.trove.scot) is replacing it and is now online in beta.

Please try it out and feedback your comments here: haveyoursay.historicenvironment.scot/heritage/470...
An image of the old Canmore website with an arrow to the new Trove website.
March 27, 2025 at 4:40 PM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
The ramparts of Preston Cleugh in the Scottish Boarders. Also known as Bunkle Edge. The fort is close to the road and easy to access but it is heavily overgrown with bracken so, make sure to visit in the winter if you want to see anything!

#HillfortsWednesday

www.trove.scot/place/58616

📷 My own
View of the bracken and tree covered ramparts to the north of Preston Cleugh. It is a driech day and there is a phone mast to the left.
February 26, 2025 at 12:53 PM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
Hownam Law in the Cheviots hills, to the south of the Tweed basin and also to the south of the Scottish Boarders. At 8.8ha it is the seconds largest fort in the county. It has between 110 to 187 recorded roundhouses within a single rampart and ditch.

#HillfortsWednesday

📷 My own
View looking north on a bright day toward the rounded ridge of Hownam Law. The ground is covered in upland grasses and there is a stone wall running across the image in the midground. The sky is blue and there are thin grey clouds.
February 19, 2025 at 8:21 AM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
Here is the Macbeth’s Stone, at the entrance to Belmont Castle, outside Meigle in Angus. It stands 3.6m high and has 64 cup marks on it’s east and west faces of which some have been reclassified as caused by rifle fire, where the stone has been used for target practice. #StandingStoneSunday 📷 My own
A close up of the large granite Macbeth's Stone showing it covered in lichin with trees just behind it and open fields behind these.
January 5, 2025 at 9:06 AM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
For the first #HillfortsWednesday of 2025, here is the entrance of Dunadd in Argyll. Said to be the seat of power for the Early Medieval kingdom of Dál Riata and the focus of forts along the Atlantic seaboard of Scotland during the Iron Age. 📷 My own.
Photo looking directly on to the natural rock cleft forming the gateway into Dunadd.
January 1, 2025 at 10:56 AM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
Have a great 2025 everyone!
January 1, 2025 at 12:20 AM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
Happy New Year!
December 31, 2024 at 8:47 PM
wulfgarthebard.bsky.social
For #Christmas and #HillfortsWednesday here is the Mither Tap o' Bennachie in Aberdeenshire which has been most recently excavated by Gordon Noble of Aberdeen University.
View looking down form the summit toward the rampart walls with the lower, forested slopes, with the plain of Aberdeenshire beyond.
December 25, 2024 at 8:49 AM