LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Scottish Borders 57959 (None)
NMR: NT 71 NE 43 (57959)
SM: 1692
NGR: NT 7670 1662
X: 376700 Y: 616620 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on the summit of Chatto Craig, a commanding summit overlooking the valley of the Kale Water S of Chatto. The defences comprise two elements, namely an inner enclosure taking in the very summit, and a large outer enclosure extending round a lower terrace, but they are also overlain by two subsidiary enclosures on the W. The inner enclosure is oval on plan, and measures 43m from NNW to SSE by 32m transversely (0.13ha) within a rampart some 3.3m in thickness; several runs of outer face are visible on the ESE, SSE, SW and WNW respectively, and the entrance is on the NW. The outer defences follow the topography to form an irregular enclosure measuring internally about 105m from NW to SE by 80m transversely (0.6ha). Its rampart has been largely reduced to a scree of grass-grown rubble, but runs of outer facing-stones can be seen intermittently around its circuit, particularly on the SE, and some of the individual blocks are 1m long and 0.9m high; an outer rampart of similar construction can be seen looping round the S side, springing from the line of the main rampart on the SW and possibly returning on the E, though this latter sector was interpreted by RCAHMS investigators in 1948 as a reinforcing buttress to the main rampart. The entrance is on the NW, pierced by a hollowed trackway leading up to the entrance into the inner enclosure, where it is flanked by the remains of two low walls. This trackway, however, is also leading between what are probably two walled enclosures that overlie the outer rampart, and the walls flanking its inner end are probably butted against the inner rampart. While the RCAHMS investigators regarded the fort to be more probably early Medieval than Iron Age, comprising an inner citadel with an outer court, their reasoning, partly based on the incorporation of the outcrops into the defensive scheme, does not stand close scrutiny. The presence of these overlying enclosures is more likely to be a manifestation of a phase of late Iron Age settlement overlying earlier defences, a typical sequence in the region, and in any case there is no reason to assume either that the two elements are contemporary, or that the outer was not a free-standing fort. Notably, the only structure visible within either is a circular platform within the northern of these enclosures overlying the outer circuit; in this case the enclosure has been provided with an independent entrance driven through the earlier rampart on the WNW.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -263811 Y: 7448308 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.3698536161103174 Latitude: 55.44292770308058 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Roxburghshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Hownam
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: 310.0m
N/A
There is no particular reason to believe this is an early medieval nuclear fort, and the overlying enclosures are more likely to be a late Iron Age settlement.
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✗ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✗ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✓ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | Overlain by what is probably a late Iron Age settlement |
Photographed by CUCAP in 1948, and by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1992, 2000 and 2010
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1859): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Roxburgh 1863, sheet 22.14) |
| Other (1884): | Noted (Geikie 1884, 140) |
| Earthwork Survey (1948): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1956, 164-5, no.305, fig 191; RCAHMS RXD 123/1-2) |
| Other (1958): | Scheduled |
| Other (1979): | Surveyed at 1:10,000 by the OS |
| Other (1999): | Description by RCAHMS |
Overlain by at least two later walled enclosures, the northern of which contains a single circular house platform
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Single platform within one of the later enclosures
| 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
| 2: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North west): | Through the inner fort rampart and approached by a hollowed track |
| 1. Hollow Way (North west): | Through the outer fort rampart, where the combination of later enclosures and the hollowed trackway give the impression of an inturn |
Inner and outer ramparts forming two separate circuits, the outer with an additional rampart on one flank
| Area 1: | 0.13ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.6ha. |
| Total: | 0.6ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.78ha.
None
| ✓ | The minor enclosures on the NW clearly overlie the defences |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 2 |
| 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: None
| ✗ | None |
Geikie, J (1884) «List of hill forts, intrenched camps, etc. in Roxburghshire on the Scotch side of the Cheviots». Hist Berwickshire Natur Club 10 (1882-4) 139-44.
RCAHMS (1956) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. An inventory of the ancient and historical monuments of Roxburghshire: with the fourteenth report of the Commission, 2v. 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