Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Scottish Borders 59955 (None)
NMR: NT 87 SW 2 (59955)
SM: None
NGR: NT 8077 7053
X: 380770 Y: 670530 (OSGB36)
The southern end of an elongated hillock formed between two deep gullies in the hillside below Old Cambus West Mains was adapted to build a promontory fort, but the greater part of the interior had been destroyed by quarrying before 1954, at which time a shallow depression was still visible where the defences cut across the neck on the NE, but even this had been removed by 1979 and today the site is occupied by a large industrial works and its yard. The interior and probably the defences had already been ploughed when James Hardy first notes the presence of two ramparts and ditches cutting across the neck (1886, 160-1), and though James Hewat Craw describes the fort in like terms, his plan drawn up in 1909 depicts only a broad hollow, which according to his profile measurements measured some 22m in breadth (RCAHMS 1915, 31-2, no.60, fig 26). Nevertheless, the interior, which terminated in a craggy point falling away 30m to either side, measured at least 155m in length from NE to SW by up to 52m in breadth (0.63ha). Hardy records evidence of midden ploughed up within the interior, and also sandstone slabs which had been heavily heated and had either vitrifaction or slag adhering to them (1886, 161).
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -257072 Y: 7543996 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.3093192824372117 Latitude: 55.92749720506402 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Berwickshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Cockburnspath
Quarried away
| Extant | ✗ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✓ |
Old quarry and now an industrial yard with sheds
| 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: 80.0m
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: | Ploughed down and subsequently quarried to destruction |
None
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1885): | Description by James Hardy (1856, 161-2) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1899): | Annotated 'Fort (Site of)' on the 2nd edition OS 25-inch map (Berwickshire 1899, sheet 1.16) |
| Other (1908): | Noted as a site (RCAHMS 1909, 13, no.65) |
| Earthwork Survey (1909): | Plan by James Hewat Craw and description (RCAHMS 1915, 31-2, no.60, fig 26; RCAHMS BWD 15/1/ BWD 15/1/1 & DP225498) |
| Other (1954): | Visited by the OS, by which time the greater part had been destroyed by quarrying |
| Other (1965): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1979): | Visited by RCAHMS |
Nothing remained visible when planned by James Hewat Craw in 1909, though James Hardy noted the presence of midden containing limpets, periwinkles, split long bones, an antler tip and a human tooth, and also claimed there had been a spring within the interior (1886, 161)
None
| None | ✗ |
| Spring | ✓ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Destroyed
| 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 | ✗ |
James Hardy noted the presence of midden containing limpets, periwinkles, split long bones, an antler tip and a human tooth (1886, 161). He also referred to the ploughing up of 'hearth stones....of sandstone; and the great heat.....had converted some of them into slaggy concretions like pumice stone; or if iron was present in the soil, an iron-clinker was the product.' (1885, 161). It is unclear whether this was slag or vitrifaction
| No Known Finds | ✗ |
| Pottery | ✗ |
| Metal | ✗ |
| Metalworking | ✗ |
| Human Bones | ✓ |
| Animal Bones | ✓ |
| Lithics | ✗ |
| Environmental | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Destroyed
| APs Not Checked | ✓ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
None known
| 0: | Totally destroyed |
| 2: | None known |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
Two ramparts with ditches cutting off a promontory
| Area 1: | 0.63ha. |
| Total: | 0.63ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 0 |
| Total: | 2 |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✓ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
Claims of vitrified stone ploughed up in the 19th century, but the whole site is now destroyed
| 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 |
Hardy, J (1887) 'On some British remains near Oldcambus'. Hist Berwickshire Natur Club 11 (1885-6), 159-61
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