Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: East Lothian Council MEL801 (None)
NMR: NT 56 SW 3 (56200)
SM: 746
NGR: NT 5317 6425
X: 353170 Y: 664250 (OSGB36)
This fort occupies the gently sloping tip of the spur descending ENE from Highside Hill, which forms the N side of the steep-sided gully containing the Back Burn above its confluence with the Dumbadam Burn. Effectively a promontory projecting into a meander of the Dumbadam Burn, the fort is provided with a formidable set of ramparts and ditches on the W. The innermost has been carried round the whole of the circuit, forming a roughly oval enclosure measuring internally about 80m from ENE to WSW by 45m transversely (0.36ha), but it has been heavily reduced by rig-and-furrow cultivation at either end, and even the external ditch that accompanied it on the WSW has been largely obliterated where it crosses the spur. The three outer ramparts on the W are set some way in advance of the inner, swinging round on the NW into a shallow re-entrant in the flank of the spur. The inner and middle ramparts of these outer defences flank a medial ditch and beyond the re-entrant seem to have been carried along the NW flank as faint terraces, the inner also extending round onto the steep SE flank. The outermost, which has been heavily distorted by a series of large pits sunk along its line, seems to peter out in the re-entrant. One entrance lies on the SW, where all three of the outer ramparts terminate short of the escarpment on the SE side, while a ploughed-down gap in the inner rampart on the NE probably marks a second. Apart from the traces of cultivation, the interior is featureless.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -306118 Y: 7532416 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.749906244796602 Latitude: 55.86917550582745 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: East Lothian
Historic County: East Lothian
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Yester
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: 243.0m
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: | Interior ploughed in the post-medieval period |
Photographed by Mike Brooks for Historic Scotland in 1979, and RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1980, 2003, 2008 and 2010
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1802): | Annotated on William Forrest's Map of Haddingtonshire (1802) |
| Earthwork Survey (1827): | Sketch-plan and description by Wiliam Waring Hay (1831, 302) |
| Other (1853): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Haddingtonshire 1855, sheet 15) |
| Other (1892): | Depicted on the OS 25-inch map (Haddingtonshire 1894, sheet 15.15) |
| Earthwork Survey (1913): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1924, 150-1, no.256, fig 186; ELD 7/1-2 & ELD 15/2) |
| Other (1923): | Scheduled |
| Other (1954): | Description during RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands |
| Other (1968): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1969): | Re-Scheduled |
| Other (1975): | Visited by the OS |
Cultivated in rigs
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: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North east): | None |
| 2. Simple Gap (South west): | Along the edge of the escarpment |
Up to four ramparts at the W end but no more than two round the greater part of the circuit
| Area 1: | 0.36ha. |
| Total: | 0.36ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 1.5ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 4 |
| NW Quadrant: | 3 |
| Total: | 4 |
| 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 |
| ✓ | At least two, but in all likelihood there is an external ditch accompanying the outer rampart on the W |
Number of Ditches: 2
| ✗ | None |
Feachem, R W (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London
Hay, W W (1831) 'Description of two ancient camps on the estate of Hay Newton of Newton, esquire, East Lothian'. Archaeol Scot 3 (1831), 301-5
RCAHMS (1924) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Eighth report with Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the County of East Lothian. 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