LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Scottish Borders 54329 (None)
NMR: NT 42 SE 9 (54329)
SM: 2140
NGR: NT 4820 2194
X: 348200 Y: 621940 (OSGB36)
What is either a fort or a defended settlement is situated on a low rocky ridge that was once clothed in a plantation bounded by a stone dyke that extends along the lip of the ridge on the SE and cuts back NW at right-angles on the NE. The remains are both complex and denuded, with inner and outer enclosures, the latter probably representing more than one period of construction. Within the plantation the ramparts and ditches of the outer enclosure at the SW end are relatively well defined, though the area had evidently been cultivated before it was planted with trees and the inner enclosure is overridden by cultivation ridges. Beyond the dyke at the NE end, however, the ground has been more intensively ploughed and though traces of low swellings in the surface of the field and nicks in the outcrops are visible, it is difficult to be certain exactly where the defences returned across the crest of the ridge. Nevertheless, the principal features of the perimeter of the outer enclosure present a markedly trapezoidal plan, so much so that it is possible that these are the remains of a strongly enclosed rectilinear settlement rather than a fort as such. Its SW end is bounded by a straight length of low twin banks with a medial ditch 8m broad, but whereas the ditch turns to descend the NW flank of the ridge, the inner bank appears to have been carried back NE along the lip of the slope. This scarp forms a continuous feature along the NW flank, and though the ditch disappears in the bottom of the gully on this side, there is a nick where the plantation wall mounts the slope some 80m to the NE which may mark its return. This measurement is then a minimum length for the interior occupying the summit of the hillock, which splays from 33m on the SW to 65m on the NE (0.5ha). At the SW end, however there are also traces of an outer bank and external ditch traversing the ridge in an arc, converging on the straight inner section at what may be an entrance at the S corner and coinciding with where the plantation dyke extends along the lip of the summit; traces of another ploughed down bank and ditch drop straight down the slope below this entrance, though to which element of the perimeter it might belong is uncertain. This complexity at the SW end was not observed by RCAHMS investigators who drew up a plan in 1950, and they made no attempt to resolve the position of the NE end, where a low swelling hints at the presence of an outer bank and a natural gully descending from the summit is likely to represent a second entrance. Whatever the status of these disparate fragments of banks and ditches, the oval inner enclosure is likely to be secondary, measuring about 75m from NE to SW by 42m transversely within a stony bank spread 6m in thickness and pierced by an entrance on the SW.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -314067 Y: 7457264 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.8213140381969635 Latitude: 55.4885359852163 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Selkirkshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Ashkirk
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: 270.0m
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: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | Overlain by an inner enclosure |
None
| Earthwork Survey (1950): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1957, 96-7, no.127, fig 118; RCAHMS SED 10/1-2) |
| Other (1961): | Scheduled |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1965): | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1993): | Visited by RCAHMS |
| Other (2011): | Visited by S Halliday in the course of the investigation of a nearby Roman coin hoard |
Occupied by a large enclosure which is probably a late Iron Age settlement and showing traces of low straight rigs throughout
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 | ✗ |
None
| 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
| 2: | Large sectors of the perimeter have been levelled |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North east): | Marked by shallow gully |
| 2. Simple Gap (South west): | At the S angle on the margin of the summit area |
Where best preserved on the SW there are low twin banks with a medial ditch, which has been cut through a particularly hard band of outcrops on the NW margin of the summit area; a slighter outer bank and ditch can also be seen at this end. The rest is too heavily denuded to be certain of its configuration.
| Area 1: | 0.5ha. |
| Total: | 0.5ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✓ | The perimeter on the SW almost certainly represents two periods of construction, though it is too disturbed to demonstrate stratigraphically, and the inner enclosure is also probably secondary. |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 1 |
| 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 |
| ✓ | Where best preserved at the SW end |
Number of Ditches: 2
| ✗ | None |
RCAHMS (1957) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. An inventory of the ancient and historical monuments of Selkirkshire with the fifteenth report of the Commission. 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