LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Scottish Borders 54058 (None)
NMR: NT 40 NE 7 (54058)
SM: 3460
NGR: NT 4827 0750
X: 348270 Y: 607500 (OSGB36)
A succession of hilltop settlements and enclosures on Dodburn Hill includes a large roughly subrectangular earthwork that is evidently fortified, its defences comprising twin ramparts with a medial ditch. The ramparts have been severely reduced, nowhere standing more than 0.6m in height above the interior, but externally the inner uses the natural slope to present a scarp dropping up to 2.5m into the bottom of the surrounding rock-cut ditch, which is generally about 10m in breadth and 1.2m in external depth. The ramparts return and unite around the terminals of the ditch at the entrance on the NE. The interior, which measures about 81m from NE to SW by 64m transversely (0.46ha) is largely occupied by what is probably a late iron age settlement, forming a series of angular enclosures immediately within the entrance, one of which contains the footing of a hut-circle. At the SW end there are traces of two more scooped courts, identified on the plan drawn up in 1933 by RCAHMS investigators (1956, 113, no.160, fig 150) as the NE end of an earlier enclosure, the perimeter of which lies mainly outside the defences to the SE. Subsequent aerial photography reveals that they misinterpreted one side of a scooped court and a possible round-house immediately outside the defences as the remains of the earlier perimeter, which has been severely reduced by the cultivation of rigs along this flank. Oval on plan, this earlier enclosure occupies the SW shoulder of the elongated summit area, following the crest of the slightly steeper slopes on the NW and SW, and measures internally at least 110m in length from NE to SW by 72m transversely (0.75ha) within a bank some 3m in thickness by 0.6m in height, with an external ditch and on the SW possibly a low counterscarp bank; with the later fortified settlement occupying its NE end, however, it may measure as much as 170m in length, in which case its interior may have extended to as much as 1.4ha.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -313645 Y: 7431816 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.8175217750722146 Latitude: 55.358802978177614 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Roxburghshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Cavers
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: 292.0m
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: | Probably overlies earlier hilltop enclosure |
| Post Hillfort: | Overlain by late Iron Age settlement enclosures |
Possibly the 'Pictish Fort' passed by Alexander Gordon near Whitehill Brae (1726, 103), though conceivably the small fort high up on the tip of White Hill (Atlas No.3251), or the earthwork on the valley floor known as The Dod (NT 4725 0603). Photographed by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme under varying conditions in 1981, 1984, 2010 and 2014
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1726): | Probably noted by Alexander Gordon (1726, 103) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1858): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Roxburgh 1863, sheet 32.6) |
| Earthwork Survey (1933): | Plan (RCAHMS RXD 32/1) |
| Earthwork Survey (1949): | Plan checked and description (RCAHMS 1956, 113-14, no.160, fig 150; RCAHMS RXD 32/2) |
| Other (1974): | Scheduled |
| Other (1979): | Surveyed at 1:10,000 |
Largely occupied by late Iron Age settlement enclosures
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
The only clearly visible hu-circle lies within one of the later settlement enclosures at the NE end
| 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 | ✗ |
Later settlement enclosures and the hut-circle
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✓ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
See main summary
| 1: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Passage-way/Corridor (North east): | Ramparts return and unite around the terminals of the ditch |
Twin ramparts with a medial ditch
| Area 1: | 0.46ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.75ha. |
| Total: | 0.75ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.83ha.
None
| ✓ | The overall footprint excludes the earlier hilltop enclosure (2), which may extend to between 0.75ha and 1.4ha, and would increase the overall footprint to 1.54 |
| ✓ | Excludes the earlier enclosure |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 2 |
| Total: | 2 |
| 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 | ✗ |
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: 1
| ✗ | None |
Gordon, A (1726) Itinerarium Septentrionale: or A Journey Thro' most of the Counties of Scotland And Those in the North of England. London
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