LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: East Lothian Council MEL1543 (None)
NMR: NT 67 NE 47 (57650)
SM: 5761
NGR: NT 6586 7549
X: 365869 Y: 675492 (OSGB36)
This fort, which is known only from cropmarks, is situated on the low hill to the SW of Pleasants, occupying the gentle slope dropping down from the crest of the hill on the W to the lip of a steep escarpment above a tributary of the Spott Burn on the S and W. No defences are visible along the edge of this escarpment, but elsewhere the cropmarks reveal a complex arrangement of ditches which probably represent several periods of construction. At its core a belt of three concentric ditches encloses a roughly oval area measuring about 110m from E to W by 60m transversely (0.58ha), and allowing for the presence of an inner rampart on the N and E the interior would have extended to about 0.49ha. The belt of ditches is some 23m deep, the inner and middle ones measuring between 4m and 5m in breadth and the outermost rather less. A fourth ditch on the W also appears concentric, but diverges westwards, probably following the line of the outermost enclosure. The latter is on an altogether larger scale, with a ditch up to 6m in breadth pursuing a sinuous course to take in an overall area measuring about 185m from E to W by 100m transversely, and area of some 1.8ha. Towards the W end of its course, the ditch appears to bifurcates, continuing as double ditches and likely to represent two periods of construction; the fourth ditch also seems to join the general line at this point, though the cropmarks are too diffuse to be certain, and it is from adjacent this same place that a narrow ditch extends WNW across the field for a distance of about 90m, forming a triangular enclosure of about 0.28ha between the edge of the escarpment and the outermost defences of the fort; the ditch terminates just short of the fort defences, implying the presence of a broad entrance, but it is unclear whether this formed an annexe to the fort or was merely utilising its outer rampart as a convenient boundary. No entrances are visible into the fort itself, and apart from what appears to be a small quarry set immediately behind the innermost rampart at the E end, the interior is featureless.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -283688 Y: 7552694 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.5484127826889353 Latitude: 55.971248942780115 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: East Lothian
Historic County: East Lothian
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Spott
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: 85.0m
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: | A small quarry seems to have been dug into the interior immediately to the rear of the rampart on the E before the earthworks were ploughed down |
Photographed by CUCAP in 1955, 1960, 1974 and 1975, by John Dewar in 1975 (held by RCAHMS), and by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1978, 1981, 1990, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2013 and 2014
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1955): | First photographed by CUCAP (St Joseph 1967, 148) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1966): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1993): | Scheduled |
Featureless apart from what is probably a more recent quarry
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 | ✗ |
Probable quarry
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
None known
| 0: | Levelled by cultivation |
| 2: | None known |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
Up to five ditches, but probably representing several periods of construction, backing onto the edge of a stream gully
| Area 1: | 0.49ha. |
| Area 2: | 1.8ha. |
| Total: | 1.8ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 2.0ha.
None
| ✓ | The outermost enclosure almost certainly represents two periods of construction, indicated by the way it bifurcates, but the inner belt of three ditches probably represents a separate phase too |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 5 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 5 |
| Total: | 5 |
| 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: 5
| ✓ | Conceivably the triangular enclosure is some form of annexe, though it might well be no more than a later agricultural enclosure, but the scale of the outer ditch of the fort defences indicates that this was probably a free-standing fortification rather than simply an annexe to the inner enclosure. |
St Joseph, J K (1967) 'Air reconnaissance: recent results, 10'. Antiquity 41 (1967), 148-9
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