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HER:  Scottish Borders 53108 (None)
NMR:  NT 33 NE 18 (53108)
SM:  None
NGR:  NT 3640 3590
X:  336400  Y:  635900  (OSGB36)
This fort occupies a rocky hillock on the spur that projects northwards from Bold Rig, between the Plora Burn on the E and the Bold Burn on the E. The escarpment on the W is particularly steep, falling away sharply over 60m, and there are no defences visible along its lip, but elsewhere traces of an inner rampart all but removed by stone-robbing can be traced around the margins of the summit, and on the NE and S there are also fragments of an outer rampart. The interior is roughly D-shaped, measuring about 67m from NNW to SSE along the chord formed by the escarpment, by 42m transversely (0.21ha), and apart from a series of later quarry pits contains a single house platform at its S end. The entrance is probably on the NE.
Citizen Science:  ✗
Reliability of Data:  Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation:  Confirmed
X:  -335210  Y:  7481671  (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude:  -3.0112418302604747  Latitude:  55.61255973289424  (EPSG:4326)
Country:  Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority:  Scottish Borders
Historic County:  Peeblesshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland:  Traquair
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:  285.0m
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:   | Severely robbed |
Photographed by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1983
1st Identified Map Depiction (1775):   | Concentric ring on a hilltop symbol on Mostyn Armstrong's map of The County of Peebles or Tweedale (1775) |
Earthwork Survey (1961):   | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1967, 146-7, no.325, fig 139; RCAHMS PBD 147/1-2) |
Other (1961):   | Visited by the OS |
Other (1974):   | Visited by the OS |
Single house platform at the S end
None
None   | ✓ |
Spring   | ✗ |
Stream   | ✗ |
Pool   | ✗ |
Flush   | ✗ |
Well   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
One
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
1:   | None |
2:   | None |
Guard Chambers:  ✗
Chevaux de Frise:  ✗
1. Simple Gap (North east):   | None |
An inner rampart everywhere except the W and intermittent traces of an outer rampart on the NE and S
Area 1:   | 0.21ha. |
Total:   | 0.21ha. |
Total Footprint Area:  Noneha.
None
✗   | None |
✗   | None |
NE Quadrant:   | 2 |
SE Quadrant:   | 1 |
SW Quadrant:   | 2 |
NW Quadrant:   | 0 |
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 |
✗   | None |
Number of Ditches:  None
✗   | None |
RCAHMS (1967) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Peeblesshire: an inventory of the ancient monuments, 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