Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Scottish Borders 58747 (None)
NMR: NT 76 NE 5 (58747)
SM: 369
NGR: NT 7777 6877
X: 377770 Y: 668770 (OSGB36)
This fort or fortified settlement is situated on the E end of the summit of Ewieside Hill, two thirds of it surviving as upstanding earthworks and the southern third ploughed down since the 19th century and now known only from cropmarks of the dithces. roughly circular on plan, the interior measures 82m from E to W across the upstanding portion, and in their final phase the defences comprise three boulder-faced ramparts and ditches. Individually neither are particularly large, the innermost being the largest and forming a bank spread 4.5m in thickness by 0.9m in height, while the inner of the ditches, which is also the most clearly defined, is no more than 2.6m in breadth by 0.5m in depth. Close examination, however, suggests that they represent at least two successive schemes, in which the outermost was added to an original enclosure of two ramparts with a medial ditch to create a belt some 17m deep. The evidence of this phasing may be observed at the entrance on the NW, where the innermost and second rampart return and unite around the terminals of the ditch, and the gap 9m wide between the returns has been blocked by the insertion of a bank at the outer end of the passage and the addition of the third rampart, though a narrow gap for access has been broken through them since. A new entrance was constructed on the NE, and possibly a second in the ploughed down sector on the SW. In contrast to the inner ditch, the ditches flanking the outermost rampart appear to be a series of discontinuous pits. in 1979 RCAHMS investigators noted a stony spine in some places on the ramparts and speculated that this was possibly the packing of palisades set in their crests. An internal quarry scoop was also visible immediately within the inner rampart and at that time traces of a ring-ditch house could be seen in the hollow near the NW entrance, with a second lying immediately to its E, while elsewhere there were traces of a third; unfortunately, the interior has been used as a feeding station more recently and these fugitive traces are likely to have been obliterated. The only other feature of note is that the SW terminal of the inner ditch at the original entrance on the NW has been utilised more recently to create what is either a small bothie or a pen.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -262401 Y: 7540829 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.3571844151469477 Latitude: 55.91155405206261 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Berwickshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Cockburnspath
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: 251.0m
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: | Southern arc ploughed down since the 19th century, and a small structure has been inserted intoone of the ditch terminals |
Photographed by CUCAP in 1948 and 1976, and by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1979, 1996, 2003, 2008, 2013 and 2014
| 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 (1856): | Annotated Camp on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Berwick 1858, sheets 4.2 & 4.3) |
| Other (1908): | Description (RCAHMS 1909, 10-11, no.48) |
| Earthwork Survey (1912): | Plan by James Hewat Craw and description (RCAHMS 1915, 26-7, no.49, fig 20; RCAHMS BWD 15/1; BWD 15/1/7 & DP225504) |
| Other (1936): | Scheduled |
| Other (1954): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1954): | Description during RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands |
| Other (1966): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1979): | Description by RCAHMS |
Traces of three ring-ditch houses were visible within the interior in 1979, but the interior has since been used as a feeding station for beasts, creating a series of other annular hollows
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Three ring-ditch houses
| 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 | ✗ |
Evidence of cattle feeding and little trace of the round-houses
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
See main summary
| 3: | The southern sector of the defences has been ploughed down |
| 2: | Elaborated in four entries below |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North east): | Pierces all three ramparts |
| 2. Simple Gap (South west): | Possible entrance in the ploughed down sector noted by James Hewat Craw |
| 3. Passage-way/Corridor (North west): | The ramparts return and unite around the terminals of the inner ditch, and subsequently blocked |
| 3. Blocked (North west): | Blocking inserted into Entrance 3 and additional rampart added to the outside |
Three ramparts representing successive schemes of twin ramparts with medial ditch, and trivallate circuits
| Area 1: | 0.55ha. |
| Total: | 0.55ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 1.2ha.
None
| ✓ | Blocking of the NW entrance probably also sees the addition of the third rampart |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SW Quadrant: | 3 |
| NW Quadrant: | 3 |
| Total: | 3 |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✓ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✓ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
Possible palisades trenches in the crests of the ramparts
| 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 | ✗ |
| ✓ | Discontinuous pits forming the outer pair of ditches |
| ✓ | The outer two are probably part of the second phase and appear as discontinuous pits |
Number of Ditches: 3
| ✗ | None |
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