LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Falkirk Community Trust, Falkirk Sites and Monuments Record 147 (None)
NMR: NS 88 SE 24 (46922)
SM: None
NGR: NS 8632 8115
X: 286320 Y: 681150 (OSGB36)
The remains of a fort revealed by cropmarks on a promontory along the escarpment of an ancient shoreline, was destroyed by gravel extraction in 1961. Excavations immediately prior to its destruction uncovered at least three concentric ditches and the lines up to five palisade trenches, probably representing a series of successive enclosures cutting off the relatively easy southern approaches to the promontory. Estimates of the original size of the interior range widely, from 60m from E to W by 45m transversely by RCAHMS investigators (RCAHMS 1963, 80, no.82) to 82m by 73m respectively by the excavator (Proudfoot 1978, 115), and 75m by 65m scaled from the plan (Proudfoot 1978, 114, fig 2), though the latter shows the internal houses slightly large than the measurements given in the text; nevertheless, the area enclosed behind the inner ditch, which was over 6m in breadth and 4m in depth, was at least 0.3ha in extent, and in at least one phase there was probably an entrance on the SSE. The stratigraphic relationships between the three ditches are unknown, nor indeed with the palisade trench that lay between the inner and middle ditches, and it is possible that any one of these lines may represent the remains of an independent defence enclosing a larger area. At least three other palisade trenches enclosing smaller areas were also located within the interior, and within the inner of these was a large timber round-house 14.6m in diameter, which had been erected on the site of an earlier oval structure measuring about 14m by 11m. While the finds from the floor of the later round-house and two adjacent pits broadly fall in the 1st-2nd centuries AD, it is likely that the multiple lines of ditches and palisades found here represent a much longer chronology of occupation and fortification.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -425782 Y: 7560368 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.824864430890185 Latitude: 56.009805248012164 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Falkirk
Historic County: Stirlingshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Falkirk
Quarried
| Extant | ✗ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✓ |
Formely ploughed out and in arable bu subsequently destroyed by quarrying and now landscaped to create a golf course
| Woodland | ✗ |
| Commercial Forestry Plantation | ✗ |
| Parkland | ✗ |
| Pasture (Grazing) | ✗ |
| Arable | ✓ |
| Scrub/Bracken | ✗ |
| Bare Outcrop | ✗ |
| Heather/Moorland | ✗ |
| Heath | ✗ |
| Built-up | ✗ |
| Coastal Grassland | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
None
| Contour Fort | ✗ |
| Partial Contour Fort | ✗ |
| Promontory Fort | ✓ |
| Hillslope Fort | ✗ |
| Level Terrain Fort | ✗ |
| Marsh Fort | ✗ |
| Multiple Enclosure Fort | ✗ |
| Hilltop | ✗ |
| Coastal Promontory | ✗ |
| Inland Promontory | ✓ |
| Valley Bottom | ✗ |
| Knoll/Hillock/Outcrop | ✗ |
| Ridge | ✗ |
| Cliff/Plateau-edge/Scarp | ✗ |
| Hillslope | ✗ |
| Lowland | ✗ |
| Spur | ✗ |
Dominant Topographic Feature: None
| North | ✗ |
| Northeast | ✗ |
| East | ✗ |
| Southeast | ✗ |
| South | ✗ |
| Southwest | ✗ |
| West | ✗ |
| Northwest | ✗ |
| Level | ✓ |
Altitude: 20.0m
N/A
Finds broadly belong in the 1st-2nd centuries AD and include; sherds of coarse Roman pottery, black burnished ware, mortaria and a flagon; a sherd of Samian; fragment of a glass phial; bronze thong tag and penannular brooch; twenty iron nails and two studs; and two gaming pieces of vitreous paste. These variously come from the floor area of the later round-house and adjacent pits
Reliability: C - Low
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✓ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | Sequence of construction of the various features is unknown. |
| Post Hillfort: | Ploughed down |
| Artefactual: | None |
Discovered by CUCAP as a cropmark in 1949, it was visited in 1953 during the RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands and included into the County Inventory for Stirlingshire (RCAHMS 1963, 80, no.82), which was published shortly after its destruction in 1961. In that year excavations were carried out by Edwina Proudfoot (Proudfoot 1978).
| Other (1949): | Discovery by aerial photography (CUCAP) |
| Other (1953): | Description during RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (RCAHMS 1963, 80, no.82) |
| Excavation (1961): | (Proudfoot 1978) |
Multiperiod round-house
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
None
| No Known Features | ✓ |
| Round Stone Structures | ✗ |
| Rectangular Stone Structures | ✗ |
| Curvilinear Platforms | ✗ |
| Other Roundhouse Evidence | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
None
| No Known Excavation | ✓ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
| Nothing Found | ✗ |
None
| No Known Geophysics | ✓ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
| Nothing Found | ✗ |
Finds include; sherds of coarse Roman pottery, black burnished ware, mortaria and a flagon; a sherd of Samian; fragment of a glass phial; bronze thong tag and penannular brooch; twenty iron nails and two studs; and two gaming pieces of vitreous paste.
| No Known Finds | ✗ |
| Pottery | ✓ |
| Metal | ✓ |
| Metalworking | ✗ |
| Human Bones | ✗ |
| Animal Bones | ✗ |
| Lithics | ✗ |
| Environmental | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
NO APPARENT FEATURES
| APs Not Checked | ✓ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 1: | Ploughed flat before destruction by quarrying |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (South): | None |
At least three ditches, presumably with upcast ramparts, and five lines of palisading cutting off a promontory
| Area 1: | 0.3ha. |
| Total: | 0.3ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.5ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SW Quadrant: | 3 |
| NW Quadrant: | 0 |
| Total: | 3 |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✓ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
None
| None | ✓ |
| Earthen Bank | ✗ |
| Stone Wall | ✗ |
| Rubble | ✗ |
| Wall-walk | ✗ |
| Evidence of Timber | ✗ |
| Vitrification | ✗ |
| Other Burning | ✗ |
| Palisade | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank | ✗ |
| Berm | ✗ |
| Unfinished | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Ditches
| None | ✓ |
| Earthen Bank | ✗ |
| Stone Wall | ✗ |
| Murus Duplex | ✗ |
| Timber-framed | ✗ |
| Timber-laced | ✗ |
| Vitrification | ✗ |
| Other Burning | ✗ |
| Palisade | ✓ |
| Counter Scarp Bank | ✗ |
| Berm | ✗ |
| Unfinished | ✗ |
| No Known Excavation | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
Number of Ditches: 3
| ✗ | None |
Proudfoot, E V W (1980a) 'Camelon native site'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 109, (1977-8), 112-28
RCAHMS (1963) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Stirlingshire: an inventory of the ancient monuments, 2v. HMSO: Edinburgh
Atlas of Hillforts:
Wikidata:
This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
and should be cited as:
Lock, Gary and Ralston, Ian. 2024. Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland. Available at: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk
Document Version 1.1