LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Scottish Borders 57154 (None)
NMR: NT 63 NE 3 (57154)
SM: None
NGR: NT 6982 3897
X: 369820 Y: 638970 (OSGB36)
This fort occupies a hillock on the SW spur of Larid's Hill, but the defences have been obscured by the construction of woodland walks in the plantings SW of the site of Stichill House. Oval on plan, the interior probably measured about 90m from ENE to WSW by 55m transversely (0.38ha), but little trace of the rampart remains visible around the margins of the hillock. On the ENE, however, a rock-cut ditch some 6m in breadth by 1.5m in depth has been cut through the narrow col that links the hillock to higher ground; it is flanked externally on the NE by a rampart 6m in thickness by 1.2m in height. The ditch peters out short of the lip of the slope on the S flank of the hillock, possibly indicating the position of an entrance subsequently adapted for one of the woodland footpath. The only feature visible within the interior is a rectangular enclosure occupying the E half and overlying the probable line of the ineer rampart at its N angle; it measures about 33m from NE to SW by 23m transversely within a wall 1.8m in thickness and is probably the remains of a late Iron Age rectilinear settlement.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -276189 Y: 7487746 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.4810490465941837 Latitude: 55.643370426186415 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Roxburghshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Stichill
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: 175.0m
N/A
In the absence of excavation, there are neither stratified artefacts nor radiocarbon dates to provide a chronology for the defences, but the overlying settlement indicates that it belongs 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: | Overlain by a Late Iron Age rectilinear settlement enclosure, but subsequently mutilated by paths and tree planting |
Curiously not shown on the 1st edition OS maps; a reference to its discovery may appear in the History of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1897): | Annotated Fort on the 2nd edition OS 25-inch map (Roxburghshire 1898, sheet 5.7) |
| Earthwork Survey (1947): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1956, 435-7, no.978, fig 575; RCAHMS RXD 194/1-2) |
| Other (1963): | Revised at 1:2500 by the OS |
The E half is occupied by what is probably a late Iron Age rectilinear settlement enclosure
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Rectilinear settlement
| 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 | ✗ |
Obscured by trees
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✓ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 1: | No trace of an inner rampart survives anywhere on the circuit |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Other Forms (East): | Simply marked by a gap in the ditch |
Presumably defended by a single rampart around most of the circuit, accompanied by an external rock-cut ditch and a counterscarp rampart on the weakest side
| Area 1: | 0.38ha. |
| Total: | 0.38ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✓ | The rectilinear enclosure within the interior must overlie the inner rampart |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 0 |
| 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 |
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