LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
Scroll left/right to view further images.
HER: Scottish Borders 57922 (None)
NMR: NT 71 NE 1 (57922)
SM: 2199
NGR: NT 7904 1939
X: 379040 Y: 619390 (OSGB36)
The fort known as Hownam Rings, situated on the local summit of the NW spur of Windy Law, was the scene of excavations by Mrs C M Piggott in 1948 that played a major role in the evolution of hillfort studies in Scotland in the 1950s and 60s, giving rise to the much quoted Hownam sequence in which palisaded enclosures were successively replaced by univallate and multivallate defences, before being superseded by Roman Iron Age settlements built across derelict ramparts. The defences of Hownam Rings are best preserved on the W flank, comprising no fewer than three ramparts with shallow external ditches or quarried terraces, the outer with a counterscarp bank, but elsewhere they are evidently overlain by the remains of a later settlement dating from the Roman Iron Age or late Iron Age; the latter is made up of a series of stone founded round-houses disposed around scooped yards and, on the E, a rectilinear enclosure. On plan, at least, the greater part of this settlement lies within a walled enclosure, which gives every appearance of also overlying the defences, but was itself superseded by the rectilinear enclosure on the E. While the latter relationship is secure enough, the sequence identified in the excavations placed the walled enclosure prior to the multivallate defences, enclosing a roughly oval area measuring 90m from E to W by 75m transversely (0.5ha). While not disputing the detailed observations made in individual trenches, this sequence cannot be correct and with hindsight diverse structural components from different periods have probably been conflated to create the circuit of the supposed univallate phase. Likewise, the relationship of the two palisade trenches that are supposed to form the earliest phases of the sequence here is far from clear, Supposedly they are overlain by the ramparts of the multivallate phase, but in practice they were found only in an area where the ramparts had been ploughed down by the Roman Iron Age and their relationships to these defences is by no means secure. While these stratigraphic relationships cannot be resolved without further excavation, there is no doubting the presence of an oval multivallate fort at Hownam Rings, probably measuring internally about 90m from E to W, but no more than 60m transversely (0.45ha); there was an entrance on the SSW, probably forming part of an entrance way approaching obliquely to expose the visitor's left side. Finds from the excavations include a range of coarse stone tools and coarse pottery and an iron knife, while fragments of Roman pottery show that the late Iron Age settlement was certainly occupied into the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -259717 Y: 7453215 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.3330751834133703 Latitude: 55.467923767760425 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Roxburghshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Hownam
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: 318.0m
N/A
While Mrs Piggott could not conceive of her simple fourfold sequence extending back more than 200 years, it can now represent occupation anywhere across a span of 1000 years, the only reasonably secure period being when Roman pottery arrived in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | Neolithic stone axe from the excavations (Piggott 1948, 215) |
| Post Hillfort: | Overlain by a late Iron Age and Roman Iron Age settlement |
| Artefactual: | Roman items from the overlying settlement |
Photographed by CUCAP in 1948/9, Dennis Harding in 1982 and RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1993, 1994, 2000, 2004 and 2010
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1859): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Roxburgh 1863, sheet 22.7 & 22.11) |
| Other (1884): | Noted (Geikie 1884, 140) |
| Earthwork Survey (1938): | Plan (RCAHMS RXD 119/2) |
| Earthwork Survey (1948): | Plan by Mrs C M Piggott based on RCAHMS survey of 1938 (Piggott 1948, 197, fig 2) |
| Excavation (1948): | Directed by Mrs C M Piggott (1948; RCAHMS 551 261/1/2) |
| Other (1950): | Description (RCAHMS 1956, 160-1, no.301) |
| Other (1962): | Scheduled |
| Other (1968): | revised at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1976): | Visited by the Hill-fort Study Group |
| Other (1979): | Surveyed at 1:10,000 by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1986): | Surveyed by R J Mercer (RCAHMS DC16052-5, DC16062, DC16101-4 & DC16221) |
| Other (1995): | Re-Scheduled |
Interior overlain by late Iron Age and Roman Iron Age settlement mainly comprising stone founded round-houses, scooped courts and a rectilinear enclosure.
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 | ✗ |
Include: coarse pottery; Roman pottery and a copper alloy nail cleaner; an iron point and a knife; piece of iron slag and two other slags; a blue glass bead and fragments of an amber coloured glass armlet; stone rubbers, polishers, whetstones, perforated weight, spindle whorl and rotary quernstones
| 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
| 3: | Large sectors have been modified and reduced |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Blocked (South): | through the stone walled enclosure and apparently blocked, the blocking including a rotary quernstone; this is probably a late Iron Age entrance. |
| 1. Simple Gap (South): | None |
| 2. Oblique (South west): | In the outer ramparts and indicating an oblique approach exposing left side |
| 3. Simple Gap (North): | Clearly an entrance into the late Iron Age settlement, but uncertain whether it re-uses an earlier point of access. |
Three ramparts and a counterscarp bank on one flank, but the rest of the circuit is confused by the overlying settlement
| Area 1: | 0.45ha. |
| Total: | 0.45ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 1.4ha.
None
| ✓ | Evidently a complex defensive sequence, after which the ramparts are overlain by both a Roman Iron Age field bank and what is probably a post-medieval dyke. |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| 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 | ✗ |
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: 3
| ✗ | None |
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London (p 151)
Geikie, J (1884) «List of hill forts, intrenched camps, etc. in Roxburghshire on the Scotch side of the Cheviots». Hist Berwickshire Natur Club 10 (1882-4) 139-44.
Piggot, C M (1948) 'Hownam Rings, Roxburghshire'. Disc Exc Scot (1948). 10
Piggott, C M (1948) 'The excavations at Hownam Rings, Roxburghshire'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 82 (1947-8), 193-225
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