LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: East Lothian Council MEL1769 (None)
NMR: NT 77 NW 16 (58800)
SM: None
NGR: NT 7011 7738
X: 370111 Y: 677388 (OSGB36)
This fort, which was fully excavated in 1978-9 prior to its destruction by quarrying, occupied a prominent hillock on the coastal plain to the SE of Dunbar. Oval on plan, aerial photography revealed a circuit of three ditches, with a fourth on the W springing from the outermost on the NS and SW, which enclosed an area measuring about 88m from E to W by 70m transversely (0.48ha; c. 0.38ha within the rampart). Excavation showed that there was also earlier phases of settlement, beginning with the construction of a palisaded enclosure at about 640-570 cal BC, which was followed by an unenclosed settlement of massive timber round-houses. The succession of defences was long and complex. The first rampart was constructed about 490-430 cal BC and formed an univallate enclosure with opposed entrances on the E and W. A second rampart and ditch were added subsequently and a monumental timber-lined entrance way was created at the W entrance. About 395-375 cal BC this entrance was blocked and a new entrance built on the SW, and the defences were elaborated in a series of stages, part of the circuit displaying three lines of ramparts and ditches. These went out of use 295-235 cal BC and settlement expanded over the redundant defences, contracting again 235-210 cal BC. The final phase of occupation began about 100-60 BC, comprising a series of stone and timber round-houses, and was abandoned AD 155-210. Analysis immediately after the completion of the excavation has been superseded by a programme of post excavation work in the University of Bradford and a comprehensive dating programme based on 158 c14 dates from long stratigraphic chains. Unusually for Scottish forts and settlements, the calcareous soils had not only preserved an extensive faunal assemblage, but also a wide range of bone tools and artefacts, as well as pottery, copper alloy objects and evidence of iron working; objects from the latest phase included items of Roman manufacture. Later activity in the fort prior to its reduction by post-medieval ploughing was limited to a single inhumation dating from the late Roman Iron Age.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -276146 Y: 7556140 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.4806617020268 Latitude: 55.98856730484681 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: East Lothian
Historic County: East Lothian
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Dunbar
Completely quarried away
| 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: 20.0m
N/A
Extensive dating programme with 158 individual dates. Horn (Forthcoming) suggests Hillfort start: 490-430 BC, Reworking of enclosure: 395-375 BC, Hillfort end: 295-235 BC.
Reliability: A - High
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✓ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✓ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✓ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | None |
| Artefactual: | None |
| C14: | None |
Discovered from the air by St Joseph in 1955 and rephotographed in 1975 and 1976, and again during excavation in 1977. Excavated by Peter Hill in 1977-8 prior to its destruction by quarrying.
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1955): | Discovered by CUCAP |
| Excavation (1977): | Trial trench followed by full excavation by Peter Hill (Armit & McKenzie 2013; archive RCAHMS) |
| Excavation (1978): | Excavation completed by Peter Hill (Armit & McKenzie 2013; archive RCAHMS) |
Timber and stone 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 | ✗ |
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 | ✗ |
NO APPARENT FEATURES
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✓ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 3: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (East): | None |
| 2. Passage-way/Corridor (South west): | Secondary construction imposed on an earlier circuit, and evolved in a complex sequence with timber-lined entrance passages |
| 3. Blocked (West): | Blocked in subsequent defensive phase |
| 3. Passage-way/Corridor (West): | Timber-lined passageway; ramparts probably returned and united around the ditch terminals |
| 3. Oblique (South west): | In Phase 3c the approach is slightly oblique, exposing the visitor's right side |
| 3. In-turned (South west): | in phase 3b, the timber passage way appears to represent an inturn |
Three ramparts with extermal ditches and a fourth on the W: univallate and 0.38ha in phase 2a, it is again univallate and 1.15ha by phase 3d, having undergone intermediate univallate (1.05ha), bivallate and multivallate (1.05ha) phases (Armit & Mackenzie 2013, ill. 4.1).
| Area 1: | 0.38ha. |
| Area 2: | 1.05ha. |
| Area 3: | 1.15ha. |
| Total: | 1.15ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✓ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SW Quadrant: | 4 |
| NW Quadrant: | 4 |
| Total: | 4 |
| 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 | ✗ |
Ditches. Limited vitrifaction found at the SW entrance
| 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: 4
| ✗ | None |
Armit, I & McKenzie, J 2013 An inherited Place: Broxmouth Hillfort and the South-East Scottish Iron Age. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland: Edinburgh.
Horn, J. Forthcoming. The dating of hillforts in Britain and Ireland. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of 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