Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Scottish Borders 56897 (None)
NMR: NT 61 NW 3 (56897)
SM: None
NGR: NT 6255 1906
X: 362550 Y: 619060 (OSGB36)
The fort that once stood on Dunion Hill, a well-known landmark between Jedburgh and Hawick, has largely been destroyed by quarrying, which ended in 1987, accidently preserving a fragment of one of the outer ramparts and the house platforms excavated towards the foot of the slope on the NE (Rideout 1992). The overall configuration and chronology of the defences is poorly understood, and was only pieced together retrospectively following the excavations 1984-6 on a group of house platforms previously thought to have been unenclosed, but which uncovered a rampart on the slope below them. On plan, the fort probably comprised an elongated summit enclosure with a series of lower walls blocking gullies and taking in lower terraces, though not in any particularly coherent scheme. Nevertheless, it was included by Feachem amongst his 'minor oppidum', and even by his reckoning extended to about 5.3ha (1966, 79). With the addition of the rampart discovered by Jim Rideout, the excavator in 1984-6, this overall area extends to at least 6.5ha, but he suggested that the inclusion of the less favourable steep slopes on the NE within the circuit was indicative that the fort had grown in a series of stages (1992) from an initial enclosure on the summit. The latter may have measured internally about 165m from NE to SW by 55m transversely (0.9ha), though it seems to have been divided into two by a cross-wall, and the circuit round the rim of the summit was by no means continuous; measuring some 4.5m in thickness, it was sectioned in 1961, along with two of the other walls, but no evidence of its date was recovered, and while Rideout suggested that pockets of earth found in the rubble of one of them was possibly evidence of internal timberwork, this can be no more than speculation (Rideout 1992, 77-9). At least 70 certain and possible round-houses have been noted within the overall area enclosed, of which two stone-founded round-houses were excavated in 1961-2, one on the summit and another on a lower terrace on the N, and a series of others amongst the platforms on the NE flank of the hill; these latter typically had traces of stone walls and there was a roadway that probably mounted the slope from an entrance through the rampart on the slope below them (Rideout 1992). There were evidently other entrances through the various walls, and indeed other roadways, but it is impossible in the wake of the wholesale destruction of the fort to make any clear access of the number of entrances and the principal route to the summit.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -288745 Y: 7452439 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.5938437316086644 Latitude: 55.46397124701101 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Roxburghshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Bedrule
A small fragment of the fort, where excavations were conducted 1984-6, survived after the quarry was closed in 1987
| 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: Well-known landmark in the area
| North | ✗ |
| Northeast | ✗ |
| East | ✗ |
| Southeast | ✗ |
| South | ✗ |
| Southwest | ✗ |
| West | ✗ |
| Northwest | ✗ |
| Level | ✓ |
Altitude: 333.0m
N/A
There is no evidence to date any of the ramparts, but dates from houses excavated 1984-6 within the outermost wall on the NE indicate occupation between the 3rd century BC and the 1st century AD, while the two stone founded round-houses previously excavated in 1961 and 1962 respectively probably date towards the end of this period or possibly into the 2nd century AD. The evolution of the defences is poorly understood, but it was suggested that the round-houses on the NE fell within the latest expansion of the fort, its core thus being implicitly earlier in date.
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✓ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✓ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | Neolithic stone axe was recovered in the excavations in 1984-6 |
| Post Hillfort: | None |
| Artefactual: | Limited range of items include a glass bead |
| C14: | Eight radiocarbon dates, mainly from internal houses |
| Other: | Thermo-luminescence dates were also obtained |
An undated plan of the fort has been noted in an unnamed solicitor's office in Hawick (Rideout 1992, 76, fig 3.2a). The archive for the excavations is held by RCAHMS (MS381/1-2; MS985/20)
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1898): | Appears on David Christison's distribution map (1898, facing 386) |
| Other (1933): | Visited by RCAHMS |
| Earthwork Survey (1939): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1956, 62-4, no.33, fig 96; RCAHMS RXD 86/1) |
| Earthwork Survey (1961): | Resurveyed by RCAHMS (RXD 86/3-7) |
| Excavation (1961): | By Edwina Proudfoot (MoW 1962, 13; Rideout 1992) |
| Excavation (1962): | By Edwina Proudfoot (1962; Rideout 1992) |
| Excavation (1984): | By the Central Excavation Unit and directed by Jim Rideout (1986; 1992) |
| Excavation (1985): | By the Central Excavation Unit and directed by Jim Rideout (1986; 1992) |
| Excavation (1986): | By the Central Excavation Unit and directed by Jim Rideout (1986; 1992) |
| Earthwork Survey (1986): | Composite plan pieced together by Jim Rideout (1992, 110, fig 3.25) |
At least seventy certain and possible round-house stances have been identified on the various plans drawn up, ranging from stone-founded examples on the summit and upper terraces to stone-founded round-houses on platforms and simple platforms
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 from excavation (1961-2 and 1984-6) include: coarse pottery and a few finer sherds, one of which is possibly Roman; a glass bead; beehive querns; hammerstones; both perforated and unperforated stone discs; a lamp; stone balls; a fragment of shale armlet; iron-smelting debris; and a medieval bronze bell.
| 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
| 8: | It is not possible to quantify all the breaks that may have existed in all the ramparts |
| 2: | These represent the broader gaps identified on Rideout's overall plan in the perimeter of the inner enclosures (3-4 & 7-8); at least two can be identified in the incomplete outer line (1-2). |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North): | Excavated by Rideout in the outermost circuit on the NE, with a roadway leading up between the houses |
| 2. Simple Gap (East): | A deep re-entrant in the outer circuit of the outer rampart identified by Rideout is likely to be an entrance |
| 3. Simple Gap (North): | Shown by Rideout in the rampart below the summit enclosure, but it is unclear from where this is derived |
| 4. Simple Gap (East): | Shown by Rideout in the rampart below the summit, with a track ascending to the summit, which appears on the RCAHMS survey |
| 5. Simple Gap (North west): | The RCAHMS surveyed in 1939 shows a hut-circle occupying what appears to be an entrance to the summit enclosure |
| 6. Simple Gap (North west): | A gap in one of the subsidiary internal walls in the gully below the summit enclosure, pierced by as trackway leading up from entrance 7 |
| 7. Simple Gap (North west): | A gap in one of the lower walls extending along the lower shoulder of the hill |
| 8. Simple Gap (West): | A gap in the same wall as entrance 7 where a gully mounted by a rocky gully |
A series of walls have been recorded, the innermost probably enclosing the summit, with others blocking gullies and taking in terraces lower down the slope, possibly forming a medial circuit round a major shoulder, but with an outermost rampart even further down the slope
| Area 1: | 0.9ha. |
| Area 2: | 6.5ha. |
| Total: | 6.5ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 6.5ha.
None
| ✓ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 3 |
| NW Quadrant: | 3 |
| 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 | ✗ |
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 |
MoW (1962) Excavations Annual Report 1961. DoE: Basingstoke
Proudfoot, E V W (1962) The Dunion, Jedburgh, Rox'. Disc Excav Scot (1962), 56
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
Rideout, J S (1984) Dunion Hill (Bedrule p). Fort, houses, walls'. Disc Exc Scot (1984), 2
Rideout, J S (1985) 'Dunion Hill (Bedrule p) Fort'. Disc Exc Scot (1985), 2-3
Rideout, J S (1985) 'Dunion Hill (Bedrule p) Fort, Quern, Stone Axe'. Disc Exc Scot (1986), 2-3
Rideout, J S (1992) 'The Dunion, Roxburgh, Borders'. 73-119 in Rideout, JS, Owen, O A and Halpin, E (1992) Hillforts of southern Scotland. Monograph 1. AOC Scotland Ltd and Historic Scotland: 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