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HER:  Scottish Borders 55709 (None)
NMR:  NT 53 SE 95 (55709)
SM:  Within Newstead
NGR:  NT 5691 3368
X:  356914  Y:  633685  (OSGB36)
Cropmarks have revealed what is probably a fortified settlement on a low spur that descend gently E to the S of the Roman fort complex at Nestead. Oval on plan, it measures about 80m from N to S by 70m transversely (0.4ha) within two ditches set about 5m apart; the ditches appear relatively narrow at about 2m in breadth. The ditches were sectioned in 1990 and within the interior a timber round-house and stone surfaces were uncovered; finds included Roman pottery from beneath a collapsed wall, as well as other coarse pottery and a bronze bracelet (Frere 1991), but the full results of this work remain unpublished.
Citizen Science:  ✗
Reliability of Data:  Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation:  Confirmed
X:  -298921  Y:  7478193  (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude:  -2.685254777666136  Latitude:  55.5949108128322  (EPSG:4326)
Country:  Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority:  Scottish Borders
Historic County:  Roxburghshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland:  Melrose
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:  143.0m
N/A
Flavian sherds were recovered from beneath a collapsed wall, showing that there is a probably a Roman Iron Age occupation, but it is quite likely that the enclosure originates in the pre-Roman Iron Age.
Reliability:  D - None
Pre 1200BC   | ✗ |
1200BC - 800BC   | ✗ |
800BC - 400BC   | ✗ |
400BC - AD50   | ✗ |
AD50 - AD400   | ✓ |
AD400 - AD 800   | ✗ |
Post AD800   | ✗ |
Unknown   | ✗ |
Pre Hillfort:   | None |
Post Hillfort:   | None |
Artefactual:   | Flavian pottery from under a collapsed wall |
RCAHMS holds an extensive collection of oblique aerial photographs of the Newstead complex
1st Identified Written Reference (1947):   | Noted on vertical aerial photographs (RCAHMS 1956, 320) |
Excavation (1990):   | Directed by R Jones of Bradford University (Frere 1991, 230) |
Geophysical Survey (1993):   | By K Clark for the Newstead Research Project (Wise 1995) |
Timber round house and stone surfaces located by excavation
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   | ✗ |
Single timber round-house and stone surfaces uncovered
No Known Excavation   | ✗ |
Pits   | ✗ |
Postholes   | ✗ |
Roundhouses   | ✓ |
Rectangular Structures   | ✗ |
Roads/Tracks   | ✗ |
Quarry Hollows   | ✗ |
Other   | ✓ |
Nothing Found   | ✗ |
Results unpublished
No Known Geophysics   | ✗ |
Pits   | ✗ |
Roundhouses   | ✗ |
Rectangular Structures   | ✗ |
Roads/Tracks   | ✗ |
Quarry Hollows   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
Nothing Found   | ✗ |
Roman pottery from beneath a collapsed wall, as well as other coarse pottery and a bronze bracelet
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   | ✗ |
Not known
0:   | None |
2:   | Not known |
Guard Chambers:  ✗
Chevaux de Frise:  ✗
Twin ditches
Area 1:   | 0.4ha. |
Total:   | 0.4ha. |
Total Footprint Area:  Noneha.
None
✗   | None |
✓   | None |
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   | ✗ |
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:  2
✗   | None |
Frere, S S (1991) 'Roman Britain in 1990. I Sites explored'. Britannia 22 (1991)
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
Wise, A L (1995) 'Red Rig (Melrose parish), enclosure'. Disc Exc Scot (1995), 6
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