Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Scottish Borders 49754 (None)
NMR: NT 12 NW 13 (49754)
SM: 3467
NGR: NT 1126 2491
X: 311263 Y: 624913 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on the crest of Whiteside Rig, a high ridge from which the ground falls away steeply for a vertical height of 100m to the banks of the Tweed on the NW and into the side valleys along the NE and SW flanks. The only easy line of approach is off the higher ground to the SE and across a shallow saddle. The defences of the fort comprise a single wall, which extends along the lip of the slope from above the saddle on the SE to the very tip of the ridge on the NW to enclose an oval area measuring about 350m from NW to SE by 100m transversely (2.7ha). Several runs of outer face are visible along its line, and also forming the leading edge of what was probably an outer wall crossing the spine of the ridge at the saddle on the SE, though this latter has been otherwise robbed away to provide stone for a sheepfold. There is an entrance in the SE end, and a second gap in the SW flank, while any entrance at the NW end is probably lost, robbed to build a stone-walled enclosure that overlies this end of the fort. Roughly oval on plan, and measuring internally 40m from NW to SE by 33m transversely, this enclosure has also been heavily robbed, though a long run of outer facing stones can be seen along the leading edge of the surviving band of rubble on the SE. The interior of the fort is featureless.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -379228 Y: 7461468 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.4066599379640157 Latitude: 55.509927437799 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Peeblesshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Tweedsmuir
None
| Extant | ✓ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✗ |
Clearing in a large plantation, with ploughing and trees encroaching along the flanks
| 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: 407.0m
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: | SE end overlain by sheepfold |
Photographed by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1981 and 1993
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1856): | Annotated Fort, but placed in the wrong position on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Peeblesshire 1859, sheet 19) |
| Other (1886): | Description of the small fort on the W end of the ridge by David Christison (1887, 17) |
| Other (1897): | Correctly placed on the 25-inch map (Peeblesshire 1898, sheet 19.16) |
| Earthwork Survey (1956): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1967, 153-4, no.332, fig 145; RCAHMS PBD 153/1-6) |
| Other (1972): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1974): | Scheduled |
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
| 3: | Large sector around the NW end removed |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (South east): | None |
| 2. Simple Gap (South west): | Unclear whether this is an original feature |
Single rampart around the whole circuit and a second across the vulnerable SE approach
| Area 1: | 2.7ha. |
| Total: | 2.7ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✓ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| NW Quadrant: | 1 |
| 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: None
| ✗ | None |
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