LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Scottish Borders 59800 (None)
NMR: NT 86 NE 8 (59800)
SM: 368
NGR: NT 8918 6914
X: 389186 Y: 669148 (OSGB36)
This fort is the north-western of a pair of forts (see Atlas No.4095) set spectacularly on the summit of Tun Law, which along its NE flank falls away virtually sheer to the sea about 150m below. In the final stages of a complex sequence the defences here were linked to the neighbouring fort on the SE, but as originally built the two forts were discrete entities, the north-western forming a semicircular enclosure backing onto the cliff-edge along its NE flank. Elsewhere the defences comprised the outer pair of ramparts with a medial ditch, which enclosed an area currently measuring about 80m from ESE to WNW along the chord by 48m transversely (0.3ha), though there may have been some reduction in its extent along the seaward side. The innermost enclosure, appears to have been inserted into the interior and lies slightly eccentric to the earlier defences. It measures about 60m along the cliff-edge by a maximum of 39m transversely (0.18ha) within a wall reduced to a stony bank, and within the interior there are the footings of ten stone-founded round-houses, the majority of which appear to have been built against the lea of the wall on the S and W, and may well post date it. An entrance on the W pierces both the ramparts of the fort and the wall of the inner settlement enclosure, but there was originally another entrance into the fort on the ESE, where the inner rampart at least was provided with overlapping terminals that exposed the visitor's left side. The presence of a minor entrance into the ESE end of the inner enclosure close to the cliff-edge suggests that this outer entrance probably remained open when the settlement was constructed within the interior, but the outer rampart of the fort was subsequently reconstructed to block the outer gap, and drawn on a wider arc to almost certainly overlie the outer rampart of the SE fort, though the re-alignment of the outer defences of the SE fort have obscured this probable relationship (see Atlas No.4095). This reconstruction of the outer entrance implies that the innermost enclosure was probably also a fortification, though this may have been long defunct before the construction of the stone-founded round-houses within its interior. In 1931 Gordon Childe excavated two of the round-houses, recovering coarse pottery (including two small vessels), a piece of bronze wire, an enamelled brooch of 1st/2nd century AD date, a spindle whorl, a whetstone, a fragment of rotary quern and a small socket stone, and sectioned the defences at two points.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -242073 Y: 7541582 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.1745760502043976 Latitude: 55.91534455079382 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Berwickshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Coldingham
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 | ✗ |
This is in effect a promontory fort on the summit of Tun Law, like its neighbour on the SE, but in this case there is no projecting promontory left
| 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: 150.0m
N/A
The enamelled brooch of the 1st/2nd centuries AD relates to the occupation of the round-houses and has no bearing on the date of the fort
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | An undecorated food vessel (NMAS: EE 73) is said to have been found in a cist at Earn's Heugh (Proc Soc Antiq Scot 28, 1893-4, 58) |
| Post Hillfort: | A late Iron Age or Roman Iron Age settlement has been inserted into the interior |
| Artefactual: | An enamelled brooch from the overlying settlement |
Photographed by CUCAP in 1948 and 1968, and by the RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1982, 2010 and 2013. RCAHMS also hold the photographic archive from Childe's excavations. Richard Feachem has misunderstood the complexity of the fortified sequence and the reconstruction of the outermost rampart of the NW fort in his assertion that the E enclosure is the earlier of the two (1963, 112), and the two forts were probably originally discrete entities.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1755): | Depicted by Gen William Roy on the Military Map of Scotland (1747-55) |
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1834): | Noted (NSA, ii, Berwickshire, 284) |
| Other (1856): | Annotated Camp on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Berwick 1862, sheet 5.3) |
| Earthwork Survey (1894): | Sketch-plan and description by David Christison (1895, 176-9, fig 31) |
| Other (1908): | Description (RCAHMS 1909, 15-16, no.87) |
| Earthwork Survey (1912): | Plan by James Hewat Craw and description (RCAHMS 1915, 45-6, no.80, fig 42; BWD 15/1; BWD 15/1/5 & DP225502) |
| Other (1927): | Scheduled |
| Excavation (1931): | By Gordon Childe and Daryll Forde with the Edinburgh League of Prehistorians (Childe and Forde 1932) |
| Other (1954): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1966): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1971): | Re-Scheduled |
| Other (1979): | Description by RCAHMS |
A later settlement enclosure has been inserted into the interior and contains ten stone-founded round-houses
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 | ✓ |
Two excavated by Gordon Childe (1932)
| 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 | ✗ |
Finds from the round-houses include coarse pottery (including two small vessels), a piece of bronze wire, an enamelled brooch of 1st/2nd century AD date, a spindle whorl, a whetstone, a fragment of rotary quern and a small socket stone (Childe 1932)
| No Known Finds | ✗ |
| Pottery | ✓ |
| Metal | ✓ |
| Metalworking | ✗ |
| Human Bones | ✗ |
| Animal Bones | ✗ |
| Lithics | ✗ |
| Environmental | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
Several of the stone-founded round-houses are visible
| 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. Oblique (South east): | Excavated by Childe. Oblique approach exposing left side |
| 1. Blocked (South east): | Subsequent reconstruction of the outer rampart blocks Entrance 1 |
| 1. Simple Gap (South east): | None |
| 2. Simple Gap (West): | Pierces both the fort defences and the inner enclosure |
In its initial stages a fort formed by an arc of twin ramparts with a medial ditch backing onto the cliff-edge. The insertion of the inner enclosure may also have been a fortified phase, and the outer rampart of the earlier fort was subsequently reconstructed to block the entrance on the ESE and probably to overlie the outer rampart of the SE fort prior to its remodelling with additional ramparts.
| Area 1: | 0.18ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.3ha. |
| Total: | 0.3ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✓ | Clear evidence of multiperiod construction with the blocking of the ESE entrance and the butting of one of the outer ramparts of the SE fort against the reconstructed line of the outer rampart of the NW fort |
| ✗ | This includes the wall of the inner enclosure as a rampart |
| NE Quadrant: | 0 |
| 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 | ✗ |
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: 1
| ✗ | None |
Childe, V G, & Forde, D (1932) 'Excavations in two Iron Age Forts at Earn's Heugh, near Coldingham'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 66 (1931-2), 152-83
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
NSA (1834-1845) The new statistical account of Scotland by the ministers of the respective parishes under the superintendence of a committee of the society for the benefit of the sons and daughters of the clergy.
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