LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Scottish Borders 55177 (None)
NMR: NT 50 NW 5 (55177)
SM: 3372
NGR: NT 5113 0914
X: 351130 Y: 609140 (OSGB36)
The remains of this fort occupy a narrow ridge that forms the summit of Denholm Hill and represent at least two periods of construction. Roughly oval on plan, in the later it measures internally about 95m from ENE to WSW by 40m transversely (0.31ha). The defences probably comprised twin ramparts with a medial ditch, but these have been largely destroyed around the eastern half of the circuit; short fragments of the inner rampart can be seen to either side of an entrance midway along the NNW side, and while the ditch can be traced round the whole of the WSW end, the counterscarp rampart survives only on the NW quarter; the ditch is up to 5.8m in breadth by 1.8m in depth where it has been cut through the spine of the ridge on the WSW. Traces of the earlier phase of construction lie another 38m WSW on the very tip of the ridge, comprising a single rampart with an external ditch; described by Royal Commission investigators in 1948 as a typical ridge fort, it is assumed that this extended to the ENE tip of the ridge, to form a long narrow enclosure taking in an area measuring about about 140m in length 40m in breadth (0.55ha). There is little trace of any contemporary structure within either part of the fort, though satellite imagery suggests the presence of what is either the ploughed-down rim of a house platform or footing of a round-house in the ENE end of the later fort. The rest of this fort is enclosed by a bank that overlies the rampart and which the Royal Commission investigators believed was probably no more than a garth associated with the footings of a rectangular building set immediately within the entrance.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -308656 Y: 7434760 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.7727004516503904 Latitude: 55.37383169980933 (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 | ✗ |
ENE end lies within a field improved in the 19th century
| 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: 265.0m
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: | Robbed and ploughed down, but also overlain by an enclosure, and by a rectangular building |
Photographed by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1984, 2007 and 2010
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1858): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Roxburgh 1863, sheet 32.4) |
| Earthwork Survey (1948): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1956, 108-9, no.153, fig 144; RCAHMS RXD 92/1) |
| Other (1965): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1973): | Scheduled |
Apparently featureless apart from an enclosure wall of unknown date and the footing of a rectangular building, but satellite imagery suggest there is the ploughed-down footing of a round-house within the ENE end of the interior
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Overlying rectangular building probably of post-medieval date
| 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 | ✗ |
Overlying rectangular building probably of post-medieval date
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✓ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 1: | large sectors of the perimeter mutilated |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North west): | None |
Probably twin ramparts with a medial ditch enclosing the later fort, but heavily mutilated by stone-robbing and cultivation; only the WSW end of an earlier fort is visible
| Area 1: | 0.31ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.55ha. |
| Total: | 0.55ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✓ | The specific relationship between the two phases cannot be demonstrated but logically the principal the more complete circuit surviving succeeded the fragment visible at the WSW end |
| ✓ | This omits the fragmentary earlier enclosure visible at the WSW end |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| 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 |
| ✓ | This omits the fragmentary earlier enclosure visible at the WSW end |
Number of Ditches: 1
| ✗ | 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