SC3653: Cademuir Hill | (Cademuir Hill 2) |
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HER: Scottish Borders 51281
NMR: NT 23 NW 12 (51281)
SM: 2715
NGR: NT 2247 3708
X: 322470 Y: 637080 (EPSG:27700)
Boundary: ✗
This fort, one of two in in the district incorporating chevaux de frise into its defences (see Atlas No.3577), is situated on a rocky hillock forming a local summit on the WSW spur of the Cademuir ridge. The position exploits the ribs of outcrops and intervening gullies that cut across the spine of the ridge, combined with the steep escarpment that falls away on the SSE in long screes to the very bottom of the valley over 100m below. The main defences comprise a roughly oval enclosure measuring internally about 73m from N to S by 36m transversely (0.23ha), and an outer enclosure embracing its entrance on a lower terrace on the WSW, but there are also outer walls on the E and and N, the latter forming what appears on plan as a small annexe, but without any entrance and apparently isolated from the interior of the fort. The wall along the E flank is particularly massive, measuring some 6m in thickness, not only dominating an outer wall which extends along the lip of a terrace before disappearing northwards into the general scree of rubble, but also the chevaux de frise set on the reverse slope of a shallow gully beyond it. The general scree of rubble, and indeed the chevaux de frise, extends well beyond the point where the main wall returns across the N end of the hillock, indicating that the wall of the annexe has also been of some size on this side, though a rampart reduced to a terrace cutting across the interior of the annexe from E to W also suggests that it is a modification of an earlier outer defence on the N. The main wall on the W does not appear as thick, possibly because no facing stones are visible along its line, but the mass of fallen rubble lying at the foot of the slope demonstrates that it was a substantial structure. The outer enclosure protecting the entrance springs out of this rubble, and the facing on the E side of the entrance through its N side survives in place; from here the approach to the entrance on the WSW of the main wall doglegs up a steep some 4m high. Within the interior, the N end of which has been adapted to create a sheepfold, there are traces of two ring-groove timber round-houses.
| Citizen Science: | ✗ |
| Reliability of Data: | Confirmed |
| Reliability of Interpretation: | Confirmed |
X: -359859 Y: 7483362 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.232669 Latitude: 55.621138 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Peeblesshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Peebles
| Extant: | ✓ |
| Cropmark: | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed: | ✗ |
| Woodland: | ✗ |
| Commercial Forestry Plantation: | ✗ |
| Parkland: | ✗ |
| Pasture (Grazing): | ✓ |
| Arable: | ✗ |
| Scrub/Bracken: | ✗ |
| Bare Outcrop: | ✗ |
| Heather/Moorland: | ✓ |
| Heath: | ✗ |
| Built-up: | ✗ |
| Coastal Grassland: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| 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: ✗
| North: | ✗ |
| Northeast: | ✗ |
| East: | ✗ |
| Southeast: | ✗ |
| South: | ✗ |
| Southwest: | ✗ |
| West: | ✗ |
| Northwest: | ✗ |
| Level: | ✓ |
Altitude: 356.0m
| Boundary Type: | ✗ |
Second HER: ✗
Second Current County or Unitary Authority: ✗
Second Historic County: ✗
Second Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: ✗
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: | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC: | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50: | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400: | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800: | ✗ |
| Post AD800: | ✗ |
| Unknown: | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort Activity: | ✗ |
| Post Hillfort Activity: | ✓ | An old sheepfold has been built into the N end of the interior against the main wall |
| None: | No details. |
Photographed by CUCAP in 1953 and 1957, and by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1982, 1986, 1992, 1997 and 2010. Visited by S Halliday on a number of occasions.
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1794): | Noted (Stat Acct xii, 1794, 9-10) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1856): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Peebles 1859, sheet 13.13) |
| Other (1863): | Description by William Chambers (1864, 29, 37) |
| Earthwork Survey (1886): | Sketch-plan and description by David Christison (1887, 20-2, fig 3) |
| Earthwork Survey (1962): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1967, 103-5, no.264, fig 81; RCAHMS PBD 92/7-9) |
| Other (1964): | Scheduled |
| Other (1971): | Revised at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1993): | Re-Scheduled |
Two ring-groove timber round-house stances
| None: | ✓ |
| Spring: | ✗ |
| Stream: | ✗ |
| Pool: | ✗ |
| Flush: | ✗ |
| Well: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
Ring-grooves
| No Known Features: | ✗ |
| Round Stone Structures: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Stone Structures: | ✗ |
| Curvilinear Platforms: | ✗ |
| Other Roundhouse Evidence: | ✓ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| No Known Excavation: | ✓ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Postholes: | ✗ |
| Roundhouses: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures: | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| Nothing Found: | ✗ |
| No Known Geophysics: | ✓ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Roundhouses: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures: | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| Nothing Found: | ✗ |
| No Known Finds: | ✓ |
| Pottery: | ✗ |
| Metal: | ✗ |
| Metalworking: | ✗ |
| Human Bones: | ✗ |
| Animal Bones: | ✗ |
| Lithics: | ✗ |
| Environmental: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| APs Not Checked: | ✗ |
| None: | ✗ |
| Roundhouses: | ✓ |
| Rectangular Structures: | ✗ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Postholes: | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
See main summary
| Total Number of Breaks Through Ramparts: | 1 |
| Number of Possible Original Entrances: |
Guard Chambers: ✗
| Chevaux de Frise: | ✓ | The chevaux de frise is tactically sited on a reverse slope where it would be invisible until anyone approaching this side breasts the slope on the far side of the gully from the fort walls. |
| Entrance 1 (West): | Hornwork: | Doglegging through an outer enclosure effectively forming a hornwork below the main defences and exposing the visitor's left side |
Single main rampart, with an outlying rampart along the E side, an outer annexe on the N and a hornwork around the entrance on the W, and a chevaux de frise sited in the gully to the E
| Enclosed Area 1: | 0.23ha. |
| Enclosed Area 2: | ✗ |
| Enclosed Area 3: | ✗ |
| Enclosed Area 4: | ✗ |
| Total Enclosed Area: | 0.2ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.64ha.
| Multi-period Enclosure System: | ✓ | The outer rampart visible in the annexe on the N almost certainly underlies it |
| Ramparts Form a Continuous Circuit: | ✓ |
| Number of Ramparts: | 2 |
| Number of Ramparts NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| Number of Ramparts SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| Number of Ramparts SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| Number of Ramparts NW Quadrant: | 1 |
| Partial Univallate: | ✓ |
| Univallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate: | ✓ |
| Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Unknown: | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate: | ✗ |
| Univallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Multivallate: | ✗ |
| None: | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank: | ✗ |
| Stone Wall: | ✓ |
| Rubble: | ✗ |
| Wall-walk: | ✗ |
| Evidence of Timber: | ✗ |
| Vitrification: | ✗ |
| Other Burning: | ✗ |
| Palisade: | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank: | ✗ |
| Berm: | ✗ |
| Unfinished: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| None: | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank: | ✗ |
| Stone Wall: | ✗ |
| Murus Duplex: | ✗ |
| Timber-framed: | ✗ |
| Timber-laced: | ✗ |
| Vitrification: | ✗ |
| Other Burning: | ✗ |
| Palisade: | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank: | ✗ |
| Berm: | ✗ |
| Unfinished: | ✗ |
| No Known Excavation: | ✓ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| Gang Working: | ✗ |
Ditches: ✗
| Number of Ditches: |
| Annex: | ✓ | The small annexe on the N is in effect no more than a manifestation of the outer defences and was possibly designed in its final form to simply extend the impression of the size of the fort when viewed from the ENE. |
Chambers, W (1864) A History of Peeblesshire. William and Robert Chambers: Edinburgh and London
Christison, D (1887) 'The prehistoric forts of Peeblesshire'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 21 (1886-7), 13-82
RCAHMS (1967) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Peeblesshire: an inventory of the ancient monuments, 2v. HMSO: Edinburgh
Stat Acct (date) Statistical Account of Scotland: Drawn up from the Communications of the Ministers of the Different Parishes (Sinclair, J ed), 1791-99
Atlas of Hillforts: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk/?query=Atlas_of_Hillforts_4166_0%2CMain_Atlas_Number%2C3653
Wikidata: http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q31106454
The online version of the Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland should be cited as:
Lock, G. and Ralston, I. 2017. Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland. [ONLINE] Available at: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.