LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Scottish Borders 58569 (None)
NMR: NT 75 NE 1 (58569)
SM: 366
NGR: NT 7656 5976
X: 376560 Y: 659760 (OSGB36)
This fort occupies the summit of Cockburn Law and displays a complex configuration of defences that is unusual in any Scottish fort. Roughly oval on plan, it measures about 108m from NNE to SSW by 73m transversely (0.63ha) within its innermost rampart, which despite evidence of heavy robbing can be traced round the whole circuit, including the rocky escarpment that falls away sharply around the E flank. Elsewhere this inner line is supplemented by outer ramparts, comprising two on the S and three on the N and W, though whether as part of an unitary design or a cumulative scheme is unclear. Nevertheless, while the second rampart, embraces all the weaker flanks, returning and uniting with the inner on the W side of the entrance on the S, the third gives the impression that it was merely to elaborate the other two entrances on the N and W respectively; indeed, some of the aerial photographs appear to show the third rampart springing from the line of the innermost on the NNE. The pattern of the S entrance, however, is replicated at the WSW entrance, where the third rampart formerly returned and united with the second rampart on its N side; the gaps through the inner ramparts are also staggered here to create an oblique approach that exposes the visitors right side. This latter characteristic is emphasised still further at the entrance on the NNW, where the third rampart turns inwards to either side of the gap, leading the entrance way along the foot of the second rampart for a short distance before turning up the slope into the interior; unfortunately the terminals of the inner and second ramparts here are too robbed to reveal any other details. While these fortifications are entirely focussed on the summit area, a further line of enclosure, again very heavily robbed and reduced to little more than a band of stones and boulders, extends round the foot of the escarpment on the E, and is apparently broken by an entrance on the ESE; its purpose is unknown and there is no evidence that its interior communicated with that of the fort. The only features visible within the interior of the fort are the stony rim of what has probably been a large burial cairn some 20m in diameter encircling the OS triangulation pillar, and several other stony rickles.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -264468 Y: 7524755 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.3757582137267677 Latitude: 55.830542816855285 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Berwickshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Duns
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: 325.0m
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: | A robbed cairn stands on the summit of the hill |
| Post Hillfort: | Evidence of heavy robbing and surmounted by and OS triangulation pillar |
Photographed by CUCAP in 1952, BY John Dewar in 1971 (held by RCAHMS), and by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1983, 1986, 1992 and 2008
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1771): | Concentric ring on a hill symbol on Andrew and Mostyn Armstrong's Map of the County of Berwick (1771) |
| Other (1850): | Description by George Turnbull (1856, 15) |
| Other (1857): | Annotated Camp on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Berwick 1862, sheet 10.10) |
| Earthwork Survey (1894): | Sketch-plan and description by David Christison, also drawing on notes by Francis Lynn (1895, 158-60, fig 23) |
| Other (1908): | Description (RCAHMS 1909, 22-3, no.117) |
| Earthwork Survey (1912): | Plan by James Hewat Craw and description (RCAHMS 1915, 64-5, no.116, fig 62; RCAHMS BWD 13/1) |
| Other (1961): | Scheduled |
| Other (1970): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1979): | Surveyed at 1:10,000 by the OS |
| Other (1979): | Description by RCAHMS |
| Other (1995): | Re-Scheduled |
Traces of a robbed cairn beneath the triangulation pillar on the summit, and several other stony banks of unknown origin or purpose
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Traces of a robbed burial cairn reduced to little more than a stony rim.
| 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 | ✗ |
Several sherds of coarse pottery and a small stone ball are held by the National Museum of Antiquities (HH 653-4, HH 688 and HH 696)
| 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
| 4: | None |
| 2: | Three entrances into the fort on the summit, but there is also an independent entrance into the lower enclosure on the E, which is not elaborated here |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. In-turned (North): | Inturns on the third rampart |
| 1. Oblique (North): | Elongated entrance way along the foot of the second rampart, exposing right side |
| 2. Passage-way/Corridor (South): | The inner and second rampart return and unite on one side of the entrance passage |
| 3. Oblique (West): | Staggered gaps. Oblique approach exposing right side |
A complex arrangement in which the inner rampart is supplemented around the more accessible aproaches with two or three outer lines, which also elaborate the approaches to the entrances
| Area 1: | 0.63ha. |
| Total: | 0.63ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 2.1ha.
None
| ✓ | The intersection of the third rampart with the inner defences on the NNE suggests some sequence in their construction. |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 3 |
| Total: | 3 |
| 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
| ✓ | The outer enclosure on the E might be construed as an annexe, but in truth its purpose is quite unknown and there is no evidence that it could be accessed from within the fort. It has an independent entrance on the ESE |
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 (1894-5), 108-79
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
Turnbull, G (1856) 'An account of Edin's Hall, in the parish of Dunse, and County of Berwick'. Hist Berwickshire Natur Club 3 (1850-6), 9-20
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