SC3712: Castle Knowe |
Sources: Esri, DigitalGlobe, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, GeoEye, USDA FSA, USGS, Getmapping, Aerogrid, IGN, IGP, and the GIS User Community
HER: Midlothian per East Lothian Council MEL8174
NMR: NT 26 SW 21 (51873)
SM: 6447
NGR: NT 2299 6404
X: 322990 Y: 664040 (EPSG:27700)
Boundary: ✗
Earthworks on the crest of Castle Knowe, which overlooks the fort at Castle Law (Atlas No.3710), have been claimed to be the remains of an unfinished fort (Feachem 1971, 30), comprising a marker trench and partly-dug segments of ditch with an internal bank, but detailed planning in 1981 revealed the scuffed tracks of tracked vehicles turning across the western segments of the ditch, which also contain a series of sharply rectangular cuts on plan; there is a strong possibility that some of these elements were created for military training exercises. Nevertheless, within the area enclosed by these works there are also traces of a palisaded enclosure, its trench extending round the WSW end of the hillock and up the NNW flank to disappear beneath later cultivation rigs at the ENE end. Oval on plan, it measures about 70m from ENE to WSW by 30m transversely (0.2ha), and contains at least three small platforms set along the lip of the steep SSE flank of the hillock, two of which have shallow encircling shelves cut into the slope at the rear and almost certainly mark the positions of timber round-houses. The existence of this palisaded enclosure on the hillock, however, may also indicate that the military interventions have adapted and modified a pre-existing earthwork, and it is notable that despite its sharp profile, the feature identified as the marker trench, which appears stratigraphically earlier than the segments of earthwork, lies concentric to the palisade trench in the interior. Rather than a marker trench, perhaps this is another palisade trench set some 6m outside the inner. Furthermore, the profiles of the easternmost segment of ditch, which is also the longest, extending round the N flank, are more rounded, and it is possibly overridden by the cultivation rigs. The true character of these remains can only be established by excavation, but the concept adopted by Richeard Feachem (1971) of a marker trench linking the unfinished segments of rampart, based on observations at Ladle Hill in Hampshire, seems an unlikely explanation of these minor earthworks. Perhaps more likely is an enclosure defended by two palisades, the outer of which was enhanced with a shallow ditch and flanking bank adjacent to an entrance in the ENE end; and it is this that was subsequently adapted for military training.
| Citizen Science: | ✗ |
| Reliability of Data: | Confirmed |
| Reliability of Interpretation: | Confirmed |
X: -359787 Y: 7531272 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.232022 Latitude: 55.863407 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Midlothian
Historic County: Midlothian
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Glencorse
| 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: 331.0m
| 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: | ✓ | Used for military training |
| None: | No details. |
Photographed by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1980, 1981, 2004 and 2005
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1971): | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1971): | Plan at 1:500 and description by John Palmer of the OS (see Feachem 1971, 30) |
| Other (1975): | Visited by the OS |
| Earthwork Survey (1982): | Plan by S Halliday |
| Other (1996): | Scheduled |
| Other (2005): | Description by RCAHMS |
Three stances for timber round-houses, two of them small platforms and the third a platform with races of an encircling groove
| None: | ✓ |
| Spring: | ✗ |
| Stream: | ✗ |
| Pool: | ✗ |
| Flush: | ✗ |
| Well: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| 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: | ✗ |
NO APPARENT FEATURES
| APs Not Checked: | ✗ |
| None: | ✓ |
| Roundhouses: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures: | ✗ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Postholes: | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
See main summary
| Total Number of Breaks Through Ramparts: | 0 |
| Number of Possible Original Entrances: | 0: | Not known but possibly at the ENE end |
Guard Chambers: ✗
| Chevaux de Frise: | ✗ |
Two palisades and at least one segment of a minor bank and ditch
| Enclosed Area 1: | 0.2ha. |
| Enclosed Area 2: | ✗ |
| Enclosed Area 3: | ✗ |
| Enclosed Area 4: | ✗ |
| Total Enclosed Area: | 0.2ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.32ha.
| Multi-period Enclosure System: | ✗ |
| Ramparts Form a Continuous Circuit: | ✗ | No ramparts as such |
| Number of Ramparts: | 0 |
| Number of Ramparts NE Quadrant: | ✗ |
| Number of Ramparts SE Quadrant: | ✗ |
| Number of Ramparts SW Quadrant: | ✗ |
| Number of Ramparts NW Quadrant: | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate: | ✗ |
| Univallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Unknown: | ✓ |
| Partial Univallate: | ✗ |
| Univallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Multivallate: | ✗ |
Claimed as unfinished
| 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: | 1: | Segments and claimed as unfinished |
| Annex: | ✗ |
Feachem, R W (1971) 'Unfinished hill-forts'. 19-39 in Hill, D and Jesson, M (eds) The Iron Age and its hill-forts: papers presented to Sir Mortimer Wheeler on the occasion of his eightieth year. Southampton
Atlas of Hillforts: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk/?query=Atlas_of_Hillforts_4166_0%2CMain_Atlas_Number%2C3712
Wikidata: http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q31096209
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.