LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Scottish Borders 58328 & 141939 (None)
NMR: NT 73 NE 22 (58328 & 141939)
SM: 3023
NGR: NT 7571 3609
X: 375710 Y: 636090 (OSGB36)
The palimpsest of cropmarks on a terrace above the S bank of the River Tweed at Sprouston includes a curious earthwork that has been variously interpreted as a ploughed out promontory fort or a Neolithic causewayed enclosure (Smith 1991, 266; Reynolds 1980, 50; St Joseph 1982, 192). The clue to this divergence of opinion lies in the character of the ditch revealed by the cropmarks, which is broken into at least five segments of varying lengths by both narrow and broad causeways. The broadest of the segments is up to 6m across, and they are strung out in a shallow arc to form a D-shaped enclosure backing onto the bluff above the river, enclosing an area measuring up to 180m fro NW to SE along the chord by 80m transversely (1ha). Field-walking by Ian Smith recovered scatters of flint artefacts from this area, which is slightly elevated above the rest of the field and bounded on the SE by a shallow gully, while the cropmarks elsewhere include a cluster of rectangular buildings probably of early medieval date and a burial-ground, but these have little bearing on the date or purpose of the earthwork. No causewayed enclosure has been confirmed by excavation this far north, and a more conventional explanation of the causewayed ditch might be an unfinished perimeter; there are certainly several other large earthwork enclosure backing onto the Tweed in Berwickshire, and an Iron Age context is perhaps a more likely interpretation until proved otherwise.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Unconfirmed
X: -265744 Y: 7482708 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.3872170911516473 Latitude: 55.617824188855096 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Roxburghshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Sprouston
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: 30.0m
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: | Flint scatter |
| Post Hillfort: | None |
RCAHMS hold an extensive collection of aerial photographs taken over many years
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1970): | First located by CUCAP |
| Other (1971): | Scheduled |
| Other (1982): | Field-walking and transcription of the cropmarks by Ian Smith (1981; 1982; 1991); there is nothing to sustain his claim in 1981 that the fort is multivallate |
Various cropmarks interpreted by Ian smith as ring-ditch and palisade trenches, but these may not be related to the earthwork
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 | ✗ |
Smith found a scatter of flint and chert tools in fieldwalking (1991).
| No Known Finds | ✗ |
| Pottery | ✗ |
| Metal | ✗ |
| Metalworking | ✗ |
| Human Bones | ✗ |
| Animal Bones | ✗ |
| Lithics | ✓ |
| Environmental | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Ring-ditch and palisades claimed by Smith
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
See main summary
| 5: | None |
| 2: | There is no clear evidence that any of these gaps is an entrance |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
Single ditch broken by causeways
| Area 1: | 1.0ha. |
| Total: | 1.0ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 0 |
| Total: | 1 |
| Partial Univallate | ✓ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
Although nothing is visible of the ditch, the presence of the causeways might be construed as evidence that the perimeter was unfinished
| 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 |
| ✓ | Broken by causeways |
Number of Ditches: 1
| ✗ | None |
Reynolds, N (1980) 'Dark Age timber halls and the background to the excavation of Balbridie'. Scot Archaeol Forum 10 (1980), 41-60
Smith, I M (1982) 'Sprouston (Sprouston p). Survey'. Disc Exc Scot (1982), 3
Smith, I M (1981) 'Sprouston (Sprouston p). Survey: crop mark timber building; promontory fort'. Disc Exc Scot (1981), 4
Smith, I M (1992) 'Sprouston, Roxburghshire: an early Anglian centre of the eastern Tweed Basin'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 121 (1991), 261-94
St Joseph, J K (1982) 'Sprouston, Roxburghshire: an Anglo-Saxon settlement discovered by air reconnaissance'. Anglo-Saxon England 10 (1982), 191-9
Atlas of Hillforts:
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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