LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Scottish Borders 48711 (None)
NMR: NT 03 SE 14 (48711)
SM: 3161
NGR: NT 0628 3417
X: 306280 Y: 634170 (OSGB36)
This fort lies on the E spur of White Hill, where it turns eastwards to descend gradually down towards the old steading of Mitchelhill. Roughly circular on plan, it measures about 50m in diameter (0.22ha) within the innermost of up to three ramparts, though most of the interior is occupied by a later enclosure measuring 36m in diameter within a low band of rubble. Reduced to a low bank around the greater part of the circuit, and elsewhere to a scarp, the innermost rampart of the defences rises no more than 0.3m above the surface of the interior, but externally it stands over 3m above the bottom of its accompanying ditch. In some places a counterscarp rampart bank can be traced along the outer lip of the ditch, and there is a strong impression from the plan drawn up by RCAHMS investigators in 1957 that these inner defences have been inserted into the interior of a larger enclosure, now represented by the outermost rampart and its ditch. The latter line picks up on the W side of the entrance on the SE and extends concentrically round the W flank only to diverge on a wider arc on the NW and return to meet the counterscarp rampart of the inner defences on the N. The sequence cannot be demonstrated stratigraphically without excavation, but if correct the outer enclosure would have taken in an area of about 0.35ha. Apart from the settlement enclosure, the interior is featureless.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -388357 Y: 7477648 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.4886746708283214 Latitude: 55.59214706806562 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Peeblesshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Broughton, Glenholm And Kilbucho
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: 340.0m
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: | Interior occupied by what is considered by the RCAHMS investigators in 1957 to be a later settlement. |
Photographed by the RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1980, 1981, 1991 and 2010
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1856): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Peebles 1859, sheet 15.6) |
| Other (1864): | Listed by William Chambers (1864, 30) |
| Earthwork Survey (1886): | Sketch-plan and description by David Christison (1887, 59-60, fig 45) |
| Earthwork Survey (1957): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1967, 133-4, no.305, fig 120; RCAHMS PBD 128/1-2) |
| Other (1964): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1972): | Scheduled |
| Other (1972): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (2002): | Re-Scheduled |
Largely occupied by a stone-walled enclosure an otherwise 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 | ✗ |
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
| 1: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (South east): | Through all lines of enclosure |
Up to four lines of ramparts, including the inner settlement enclosure, but probably representing several periods of construction
| Area 1: | 0.22ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.35ha. |
| Total: | 0.35ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.62ha.
None
| ✓ | The 'seam' in the outer defences on the N, and the divergence of the outermost rampart on the NW suggest that the inner fort has been inserted into an earlier enclosure, but this cannot be demonstrated without excavation. |
| ✓ | The inner settlement enclosure has been omitted from this analysis |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SW Quadrant: | 3 |
| NW Quadrant: | 2 |
| Total: | 3 |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✓ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✓ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
Grass-grown rubble
| 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 |
Chambers, W (1864) A History of Peeblessire. William and Robert Chambers: Edinburgh and London
Christison, D (1887) 'The prehistoric forts of Peeblesshire'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 21 (1886-7), 13-82
RCAHMS (1967) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Peeblesshire: an inventory of the ancient monuments, 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