Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Scottish Borders 51282 (None)
NMR: NT 23 NW 13 (51282)
SM: 2441
NGR: NT 2300 3745
X: 323000 Y: 637450 (OSGB36)
This fort, which is one of the larger in Peeblesshire, crowns the western summit of the Cademuir ridge. Rhomboidal on plan, its interior measures about 255m from NNE to SSW by 145m transversely (2.1ha) and contains traces of at least 35 round-houses, some marked by no more than a shallow platform and others by a shallow platform encircled by a groove; some of the ring-groove houses at the N end of the interior are the most complete and well-defined examples of this type of timber round-house visible anywhere in southern Scotland. For most of the circuit the defences comprise an inner wall about 3m in thickness with a roughly concentric outer rampart, but while the wall may have continued along the lip of the escarpment falling away to the bottom of the valley on the SE, little trace of it survives there today, and of the outer nothing is visible. The RCAHMS investigators who drew up the description in 1959 suggested that the intermittent character of a ditch that accompanies the outer rampart over short distances on the NW and SW respectively indicated that this outer work was unfinished, but this is a tenuous argument for a rampart that is apparently continuous in sectors where there is no evidence of any ditch. Entrances pierce both lines of defence on the E and SW respectively, the latter set in a shallow re-entrant with a well-worn hollow mounting the slope into the interior. Apart from the round-houses within the interior, the investigators also identified a faint scarp or band of rubble, which they thought might mark the course of an earlier perimeter on the hill top; enclosing about 1ha, this would still be an unusually large enclosure in the area, but its true character can only be resolved by excavation.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -358934 Y: 7484034 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.2243592819388605 Latitude: 55.62454598817465 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Peeblesshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Peebles
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: 407.0m
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: | None |
Photographed by CUCAP in 1953 and 1957, and RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1980, 1981, 1982, 1985, 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, 18, pl 4, fig 57) |
| Earthwork Survey (1952): | Plan and description (RCAHMS PBD 92/1-3 & 5-6) |
| Earthwork Survey (1959): | Plan and description revised (RCAHMS 1967, 102-4, no.263, fig 80; RCAHMS PBD 92/4 ) |
| Other (1968): | Scheduled |
| Other (1971): | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
The RCAHMS description prepared in 1959 noted traces of 35 ring-groove round-houses within the interior, typically comprising a shallow central platform with traces of an encircling groove, though the plan plan drawn up at the time shows only 19 in this manner, and the rest are simply depicted as the backs of platforms. Subsequent aerial photography has revealed traces of grooves round several other platforms, while on the ground, seen under a range of conditions (SH) traces of other ring-grooves can be detected which appear on neither the plan or the aerial photographs.
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Platforms within ring-grooves
| 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 | ✗ |
Numerous traces revealed under light snow cover
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✓ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 2: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (South west): | The ramparts turn in to either side of a natural hollow to create a shallow re-entrant |
| 2. Simple Gap (East): | None |
Two ramparts everywhere except along the escarpment on the SE
| Area 1: | 2.1ha. |
| Total: | 2.1ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.27ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 2 |
| Total: | 2 |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✓ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
The claim that the outer rampart is unfinished is difficult to sustain on the limited evidence provided by the short segments of ditch at two points on the circuit.
| 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 |
| ✓ | Intermittent traces of an external ditch accompanying the outer rampart at two places |
Number of Ditches: 1
| ✗ | None |
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:
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