Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Scottish Borders 54008 (None)
NMR: NT 40 NE 1 (54008)
SM: 3367
NGR: NT 4749 0971
X: 347490 Y: 609710 (OSGB36)
The remains of a substantial fort occupy the Chester Knowe, which forms the S end of an elongated summit, but large sectors of its defences and parts of its interior have been mutilated by the construction of a series of later enclosures, probably mainly in the late Iron Age. Roughly oval on plan, it measures at least 80m from NE to SW by 50m transversely (0.38ha) within twin ramparts that can be seen now only along the NW and SE flanks, where they are both reduced to scarps. On the NE, the line of the circuit has been obscured by the construction of a later enclosure, probably a settlement, though cultivated has smoothing the contours of several scoops and platforms within its interior and removed the NW and SE sectors of its perimeter; dropping down the slope from the fort on the SW, the surviving sectors on the NE and SW comprise twin banks with a medial ditch and suggest a polygonal or roughly rectilinear shape on plan, measuring 40m from NE to SW by up to 60m transversely (0.15ha). Another curvilinear enclosure and scooped court at the NE end of the interior of the fort, not only overlies the defences of the fort, but also the perimeter of this settlement, while at the SW end the defences are virtually obliterated by two more small enclosures which are almost certainly the remains of late Iron Age settlements. On the slope below the S flank of the fort, three or four stubs of radiating field-banks can be seen, almost certainly representing agricultural enclosures or fields pre-dating the surrounding rig-systems; whether these are associated with the late Iron Age occupation is unknown.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -315061 Y: 7435690 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.830239530874998 Latitude: 55.378576603778804 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Roxburghshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Hawick
None
| Extant | ✓ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✗ |
None
| 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: 254.0m
N/A
In the absence of excavation, there are neither stratified artefacts nor radiocarbon dates to provide a chronology for the defences.
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | Overlain by Late Iron Age settlement enclosures |
Photographed by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme under partial snow in 2010. In 1956 this was included by the RCAHMS investigators in their category of ridge forts (RCAHMS 1956, 18)
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1858): | Annotated Camp in Roman Type on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Roxburgh 1863, sheet 32.2) |
| Earthwork Survey (1949): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1956, 144-5, no.252, fig 174; RCAHMS RXD 110/1-2) |
| Other (1965): | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1974): | Scheduled |
| Other (1979): | Visited by the OS |
Featureless apart from the late Iron Age settlement enclosures
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 | ✗ |
None
| 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 | ✗ |
None known
| 3: | None |
| 2: | None known, though quarries cut them at two places and a ditch elsewhere |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
Twin ramparts
| Area 1: | 0.38ha. |
| Total: | 0.38ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.79ha.
None
| ✓ | Overlain by late Iron Age settlement earthworks. The overall footprint omits the extent of these latter |
| ✗ | probably originally complete, but overlain now by later enclosures |
| NE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 2 |
| Total: | 2 |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✓ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
Grass-grown scarps
| None | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank | ✗ |
| Stone Wall | ✗ |
| Rubble | ✓ |
| Wall-walk | ✗ |
| Evidence of Timber | ✗ |
| Vitrification | ✗ |
| Other Burning | ✗ |
| Palisade | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank | ✗ |
| Berm | ✗ |
| Unfinished | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
None
| 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: None
| ✗ | None |
RCAHMS (1956) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. An inventory of the ancient and historical monuments of Roxburghshire: with the fourteenth report of the Commission, 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