LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Scottish Borders 58019 (None)
NMR: NT 71 NW 21 (58019)
SM: 1699
NGR: NT 7195 1585
X: 371950 Y: 615850 (OSGB36)
The remains of a heavily damaged fort are situated on the summit of The Law. Its defences comprise three ramparts disposed in two slightly eccentric circuits, but all had largely been reduced to scarps by the time RCAHMS investigators drew up a plan in 1948, and further reduced by ploughing since in the field on the NW side of the stone dyke that traverses the crest of the hill from NE to SW. Oval on plan, the inner circuit measures internally about 125m from NE to SW by 70m transversely (0.54ha), and the outer circuit, comprising twin ramparts with a medial ditch, a correspondingly larger area measuring 138m by 90m (0.88ha). Additional material for the outermost rampart was probably extracted from the small external quarry pits intermittently visible round the circuit. Despite the ploughing, aerial photographs taken by Dennis Harding in 1982 apparently show traces of palisade trenches in the crests of the innermost and outermost ramparts at the SW end, and in the middle rampart at the NE end, where there are also traces of a smaller palisaded enclosure within the interior and possibly as many as five timber round-houses. There are three entrances, each penetrating both circuits, and situated on the NNE, SSW and NW respectively; at the NNE entrance the middle and outer rampart return and unite around the terminals of the ditch medial. While the three ramparts may have been designed as a single scheme, it is equally possible the two circuits represent different periods of construction.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -272160 Y: 7446902 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.444857635087612 Latitude: 55.43575899493896 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Roxburghshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Oxnam
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: 287.0m
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: | Overlain by stone dyke and the NW half heavily ploughed |
Photographed from the air by Dennis Harding in 1982, by John Dent in 1991 and by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1992
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1859): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Roxburgh1863, sheet 27.4) |
| Other (1884): | Noted (Geikie 1884, 143) |
| Earthwork Survey (1948): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1956, 374-5, no.793, fig 481; RCAHMS RXD 174/1-2) |
| Other (1960): | Scheduled |
| Other (1968): | Revised by the OS |
Heavily ploughed, but traces of up to five timber round-house stances visible at the NE end on the E side of the dyke
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Annular shapes visible on oblique aerial photographs should be visible on the ground. At least one is a ring-ditch house.
| 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 | ✗ |
Annular shapes visible on oblique aerial photograph
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✓ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 3: | Large sectors of the perimeter have been effectively levelled |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Passage-way/Corridor (North east): | Ramparts of the outer defences return and unite around the terminals of the medial ditch |
| 2. Simple Gap (South): | None |
| 3. Simple Gap (North west): | None |
Three ramparts disposed in two slightly eccentric circuits, the outermost and middle ones flanking a medial ditch
| Area 1: | 0.54ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.88ha. |
| Total: | 0.88ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 1.3ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 3 |
| 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 |
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