LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Scottish Borders 49812 (None)
NMR: NT 13 NE 11 (49812)
SM: 2950
NGR: NT 1972 3727
X: 319720 Y: 637270 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on a low spur that forms a hillock on the NW flank of White Knowe dropping down above Easter Dawyck. Its defences display evidence of a several periods of construction, the two principal elements being an inner and outer enclosure, of which the inner is the later. Oval on plan, the latter measures internally 52m from E to W by 40m transversely (0.17ha) and contains four stone-founded round-houses, but while this was regarded as a later settlement by RCAHMS investigators in 1956 (RCAHMS 1967, 115, no.277), overlying the earlier rampart on the W, it has a wall in which the intermittent facing-stones indicate a thickness of some 3.6m, and should probably regarded as a fortification in its own right. The underlying fort is also oval, measuring about 88m from NE to SW by 67m transversely (0.42ha) within a single stone-faced rampart, which is accompanied around the SE and SW flanks by an external ditch, and where in places there is also an internal quarry ditch; these defences, in their view, had been demolished on the NE, and it is perhaps curious that they did not pose the question of whether the perimeter had ever been completed in this sector. There is certainly little trace of it on the ground and little continuity with the arc of the rampart on the N, which suggests that if ever completed the earlier defences had already been reconfigured into a roughly circular enclosure measuring about 67m in internal diameter (0.38ha), long before the construction of the inner enclosure. They believed, however, that this reconfiguration belonged to a later phase in which an annexe containing another three round-houses was added to the inner enclosure, but the narrow band of rubble forming the annexe wall is of altogether different character to the underlying rampart on the E and N. The true sequence here cannot be resolved without excavation but it is almost certainly more complex than perceived in 1956. The terminal of the rampart and ditch of the earlier defences on the NE appears to mark one side of an entrance, while a second entrance on the W seems to have served both the earlier fort and the inner enclosure; the annexe has its own entrance on the NE. Whether the visible round-houses are contemporary with any of the defences, or are an essentially unenclosed settlement superimposed on their ruins, is not known.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -364725 Y: 7483610 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.2763808961120193 Latitude: 55.62239820078796 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Peeblesshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Stobo
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: 343.0m
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: | None |
Photographed by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1982
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1955): | Discovered during RCAHMS Marginal Lands Survey (1951-55) |
| Earthwork Survey (1956): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1967, 115, no.277, fig 94; RCAHMS PBD 103/1-2) |
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1967): | OS 1:10,560 |
| Other (1970): | Scheduled |
| Other (1971): | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
Seven stone-founded round-houses are visible, four within the innermost enclosure and three between the ramparts on the ESE
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 | ✗ |
None
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✓ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 2: | None |
| 2: | Only one entrance in the latest phase, but two in the earlier enclosures, which may also represent several phases. |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North east): | In the outer enclosure |
| 2. Simple Gap (West): | Through both the inner and outer enclosures |
Conceived by RCAHMS investigators in 1956 as a twofold sequence in which a walled settlement was inserted into an earlier fort and subsequently enlarged with an annexe, the sequence here is likely to be more complex, with at least three separate perimeters.
| Area 1: | 0.17ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.42ha. |
| Total: | 0.42ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.57ha.
None
| ✓ | While there can be little doubt that the inner enclosure overlies the outer on the W, it is likely that the outer enclosure had already been reconfigured on the NE |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| 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: 1
| ✗ | None |
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