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Craig Mony fort is an Iron Age hill fort situated in Inverness-shire, Scotland. The monument occupies a commanding position built upon bedrock of Lower Old Red Sandstone, a resistant conglomerate and sandstone formation laid down in the Early Devonian period over 400 million years ago. This ancient geology provided a naturally formidable foundation for the fort's construction and has ensured the site's survival to the present day. The fort is protected as a scheduled monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM5808.
As a hill fort of the Iron Age, Craig Mony would have served as a defensive settlement and focal point for the local community during the first millennium BC. The fort's position on solid sandstone bedrock offered both practical advantages for construction and the strategic height required for surveillance and defence across the surrounding landscape of the Moray Firth region. The durability of the underlying geological strata has preserved the fort's structural remains, making it an important archaeological resource for understanding Iron Age settlement patterns in the Scottish Highlands.
The monument remains in the landscape today as a testament to Iron Age engineering and territorial organisation in northern Scotland. Craig Mony's survival owes much to its geology: the tough Old Red Sandstone bedrock has resisted erosion far more effectively than softer rocks elsewhere, allowing the fort's defensive works and internal features to endure across two and a half millennia.
Craig Mony,fort is a scheduled monument protected by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM5808. View the official record →
Craig Mony fort is an Iron Age hill fort situated in Inverness-shire, Scotland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM5808.
Craig Mony,fort dates from the iron age period, and is classified as a fort. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Craig Mony,fort is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic Environment Scotland — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Scotland. The official designation reference is SM5808.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Clachmhor, cup-marked stone (1.6 km), Culnakirk Burn, burnt mounds 540m NNW of Garbeg Cottage (2.4 km), Upper Drumbuie, burnt mound 230m NNE of (2.6 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Craig Mony,fort's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Craig Mony,fort stands on Lower Old Red Sandstone, bedrock that formed in the Early Devonian. The rock here is conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone and mudstone.