LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Scottish Borders 56025 (None)
NMR: NT 55 SW 1 (56025)
SM: 364
NGR: NT 5078 5045
X: 350780 Y: 650450 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on the shoulder of a low spur that projects NE from the rising ground on the W side of Lauderdale. Roughly circular on plan, three ramparts are preserved everywhere except on the SE, where a quadrant of the defences to the rear of the old shepherd's cottage has been demolished. Detailed examination of these defences, however, suggests that they represent two periods of construction, the innermost, which in contrast to the outer ramparts has no flanking ditch, probably representing a settlement inserted into the interior of an earlier fort. This fort measures about 115m in internal diameter (1ha) and its defences comprise two substantial ramparts with external ditches, the outer depicted about 1912 by James Hewat Craw with a short fragment of a counterscarp bank surviving on the N (RCAHMS 1915, 114-15, no.216, fig 105); together these form an impressive belt at least 25m deep. The perimeter of the innermost settlement enclosure is not only slighter in construction, but according to Craw's profile of the defences on the W its interior has been dug into the slope, measuring a little over 90m in diameter (0.64ha); two or three stone-founded round-houses are set round the N side at the foot of the rampart adjacent to a later quarry pit. Craw's plan shows opposed entrances on the NE and SW respectively. At the former the ramparts of the fort return and unite around the terminals of the inner ditch, and the hollow of the entrance way continues directly into the gap in the settlement enclosure; no such details are shown by Craw at the SW entrance, but here the gap in the settlement enclosure is apparently offset to the E from the axis of the entrance through the fort ramparts.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -310091 Y: 7507810 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.7855935936309173 Latitude: 55.7449536018312 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Berwickshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Lauder
None
| Extant | ✓ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✗ |
Scattered deciduous trees surviving from an old plantation
| Woodland | ✓ |
| Commercial Forestry Plantation | ✗ |
| Parkland | ✗ |
| Pasture (Grazing) | ✓ |
| Arable | ✗ |
| Scrub/Bracken | ✗ |
| Bare Outcrop | ✗ |
| Heather/Moorland | ✗ |
| Heath | ✗ |
| Built-up | ✗ |
| Coastal Grassland | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
On the shoulder of a low spur
| 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: 260.0m
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: | Several stone-founded round-houses are situated on the N side of the interior of the innermost enclosure and almost certainly relate to a late Iron Age occupation. Quarried, overlain by a 19th century farmstead, and planted with trees in the early 19th century |
Photographed by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme through the trees in 1983 and 1994
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1755): | On General William Roy's Military Map of Scotland (1747-55) |
| Other (1857): | Named in Roman type on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Berwick 1862, sheet 19.3) |
| Other (1883): | Description by James Tait (1884, 312) |
| Other (1894): | Description by David Christison (1895, 136) |
| Other (1908): | Description (RCAHMS 1909, 39, no.190) |
| Earthwork Survey (1912): | Plan drawn up by James Hewat Craw, possibly as early as 1910 (RCAHMS 1915, 114-15, no.216, fig 105; RCAHMS BWD 12/1) |
| Other (1936): | Scheduled |
| Other (1952): | Description during RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (Feachem 1963, 113) |
| Other (1963): | Revised at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1975): | Revised at 1:2500 by the OS |
The interior of the fort is largely occupied by a concentric settlement enclosure, within which several stone founded round-houses of probable late Iron Age date are ranged around the N side
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Several stone-founded round-houses have been noted around the N side of the interior of the innermost enclosure and probably belong to a late Iron Age occupation
| 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 | ✗ |
Discovery of a bronze figurine of 1st or 2nd century date on the W side of the fort reported by Walter Elliot to RCAHMS in 1997 (RCAHMS MS 847/1); presented to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland. A stone ball from Blackchester is in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (HH490).
| No Known Finds | ✗ |
| Pottery | ✗ |
| Metal | ✓ |
| Metalworking | ✗ |
| Human Bones | ✗ |
| Animal Bones | ✗ |
| Lithics | ✗ |
| Environmental | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
Obscured by trees
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✓ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 3: | Major gap caused by demolition on the SE |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Passage-way/Corridor (North east): | The fort ramparts return and unite around the terminals of the inner ditch |
| 2. Simple Gap (South west): | None |
Three ramparts, the outer two accompanied by external ditches and an outer counterscarp bank, but the innermost probably belongs to a later settlement inserted into the interior
| Area 1: | 1.0ha. |
| Total: | 1.0ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✓ | While the stratigraphic sequence cannot be demonstrated it is implied |
| ✓ | The gap on the SE is entirely due to demolition; the analysis below excludes the innermost rampart on the grounds that it is probably an inserted settlement enclosure |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| 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 | ✗ |
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: 2
| ✗ | None |
Christison, D (1895) 'The forts of Selkirk, the Gala Water, the Southern slopes of the Lammermoors, and the north of Roxburgh'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 29 (1894-50), 108-79
Feachem, R W (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London
RCAHMS (1909) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. First report and Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the County of Berwick. HMSO: Edinburgh.
RCAHMS (1915) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Sixth report and Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the County of Berwick (Revised Issue). 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