LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: The West of Scotland Archaeology Service 10644 (None)
NMR: NS 93 SE 4 (47559)
SM: 2741
NGR: NS 9857 3408
X: 298570 Y: 634080 (OSGB36)
This small fortified enclosure, which has been heavily ploughed down, is situated at the edge of a natural escarpment about 2m in height. Oval on plan, it measures about 55m from E to W by 44m (0.18ha) transversely within twin banks with a medial ditch, but its inner bank, now some 11m in thickness by 0.5m in height, has been spread by cultivation into the interior, which was probably originally in the order of 0.2ha. The ditch, however is a substantial barrier, measuring up to 15m in breadth by 1.3m in depth, though whether it completed the circuit at the foot of the escarpment on the S is not known. There are opposed entrances on the E and W respectively.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -401967 Y: 7477185 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.610929527574602 Latitude: 55.58979283877402 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: South Lanarkshire
Historic County: Lanarkshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Symington
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: 230.0m
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 |
First depicted on Charles Ross's A map of the shire of Lanark (1773), it appears on William Forrest's map of The County of Lanak from Actual Survey (1816), but had been ploughed down by 1859 when it was shown as a dashed circle annotated 'Camp' on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Lanarkshire 1864, sheet 39.7). David Christison visited in 1889 (Christison 1990, 331). It was surveyed in 1969 by RCAHMS for the County Inventory of Lanarkshire (RCAHMS 1978, 155-6, no. 324, fig 102). It was visited by the OS in 1955 and resurveyed at 1:2500 in 1979. It has been photographed on numerous occasions from the air, by CUCAP, John Dewar, RCAHMS and W Hanson. In 1999 a geophysical survey was carried out (Sharpe and Hamer 1999)
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1773): | Charles Ross, A map of the shire of Lanark (1773) |
| Other (1816): | William Forrest's map of The County of Lanak from Actual Survey (1816) |
| Other (1859): | Annotated Camp on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Lanarkshire 1864, sheet 39.7) |
| Other (1889): | Description by David Christison (1890, 331) |
| Other (1955): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1968): | Scheduled |
| Earthwork Survey (1969): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1978, 155-6, no. 324, fig 102; RCAHMS LAD 169/1-2) |
| Other (1979): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Geophysical Survey (1999): | Glasgow University (Sharpe and Hamer 1999) |
Featureless
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 | ✗ |
Possible structures reported
| 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
| 2: | Ploughed down all round the circuit |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (East): | None |
| 2. Simple Gap (West): | None |
Twin banks with a medial ditch
| Area 1: | 0.2ha. |
| Total: | 0.2ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| NW Quadrant: | 2 |
| Total: | 2 |
| 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 |
Christison, D (1890) 'Forts, camps, and motes of the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 24 (1889-90), 281-352
RCAHMS (1978) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Lanarkshire: an inventory of the prehistoric and Roman monuments. HMSO: Edinburgh
Sharpe and Hamer, L and J (1999) 'Westside (Symington parish), geophysical survey; ?settlement', Disc Exc Scot 1999, 85
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