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A small hillfort is a fortified settlement of the Iron Age, typically enclosed by banks and ditches cut into the bedrock, serving as a refuge and administrative centre for a local community. This example, located near Omagh in County Tyrone, sits on bedrock of Ordovician to Silurian age, specifically an igneous intrusion of felsic composition that would have presented a challenging landscape for construction. The hard, crystalline nature of the underlying rock means any defensive earthworks were necessarily adapted to the natural topography rather than cut deeply into the ground.
Small hillforts of this type are characteristic of northern Irish Iron Age settlement, typically occupied for trade, storage and defence during the first millennium BC. The Omagh example's position in the upland terrain of the Sperrin foothills would have commanded strategic views across the Strule valley. The monument remains as an earthwork feature within the modern landscape, its form shaped by both Iron Age engineering and subsequent land use over two millennia.
The site is protected by the Historic Environment Division of the Department for Communities (monument record 14613), ensuring its preservation as evidence of early settlement and territorial organisation in Ulster.
Small hillfort is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 14613. View the official record →
A small hillfort is a fortified settlement of the Iron Age, typically enclosed by banks and ditches cut into the bedrock, serving as a refuge and administrative centre for a local community. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 14613.
Small hillfort dates from the e.christ. period, and is classified as a hillfort. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Small hillfort is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Ni. The official designation reference is 14613.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Court tomb (6.1 km), White stones. court tomb (6.9 km), Stone circles (2), cairns (2) & alignment (7.4 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Small hillfort'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.
Small hillfort stands on Unnamed Igneous Intrusion, Ordovician To Silurian, bedrock that formed in the Silurian. The rock here is felsic-rock.