Cluny Hill

Nearest town:
Forres (1km WSW)
OS reference:
NJ04455902
OS sheet:
27
Latitude:
57° 36' 40 N
Longitude:
3° 35' 58 W
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Images

Image of Cluny Hill (Hillfort) by drewbhoy

This gap in the trees near the Nelson Tower has the fort on the other side.

Image credit: drew/amj
drewbhoy
drewbhoy Apr 4, 2016

Articles

Cluny Hill

thelonious
thelonious Mar 10, 2019

09/02/2019 – Train trip to Forres to visit Cluny Hill and the wonderful Sueno’s Stone nearby. Nice stroll up the hill on tracks through open woodland. Good view from the top to Findhorn bay. Nothing much really to see of the fort. Nice walk though and bakeries/cafes in Forres were worth the trip alone, yum.

Cluny Hill

drewbhoy
drewbhoy Apr 5, 2016

Forres has a lot of well known history i.e. all the Macbeth stuff, the infamous Witches Stones, the Pictish Sueno and Rodney Stones but hardly any mention of the fort. Some locals, as I found out, still refer to the hill as a fort rather than Nelson’s Tower which was built close by.

I left the B9010, St Leonards Road, at the lodge to the cemetery and kept going until a wee car park. By this time the torrential rain had abated to a downpour and I was on the wrong side of the hill. Luckily for me a local told me the directions and more interestingly referred to the hill as a fort. Old legends and myth are alive in Forres.

From here I walked until the track cuts back on itself and then headed east through the graveyard. Keep going until the far exit and follow the track up hill. A sign marked Nelsons Tower should be followed until the tower is reached. Look south and a gap in the trees can be seen. The fort is on the other side.

Sadly with the graveyard and tower this is a very popular place and a public park with the ramparts of the fort all but gone. Still on another day the views would be superb and the forts defences made all the more difficult by their steepness and today the driving rain. Reports from the 1830s suggest it must have been a huge fort.

With that it was back to the car and it still chucked it down.

Visited 4/4/2016.

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