Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: Scottish Borders 51242 (None)
NMR: NT 23 NE 14 (51242)
SM: 3060
NGR: NT 2673 3680
X: 326730 Y: 636800 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated at the N tip of a long spur dropping down from Dead Side between the Waddenshope and Glensax Burns, and is set at the point where the ground falls away more steeply on the N down to the cottage at Waddenshope. Oval on plan, the defences comprise inner and outer enclosures, the inner measuring internally 58m from NW to SE by 30m transversely (0.16ha). The enclosing rampart has been reduced to a low stony bank to either side of the entrance on the SE, and elsewhere to a scarp; on the SE, which is also the easiest line of approach, it is accompanied by an external ditch, 5m beyond which, and unrecognised when RCAHMS investigators drew up a plan in 1952 (RCAHMS 1967, 146-7, no.324, fig 138), are traces of a concentric palisade trench. The outer enclosure is not concentric, its rampart lying from 12m to 28m outside the inner on the NW and SE respectively, and 5m along the flanks, and again is largely reduced to a scarp but forms a low bank to either side of the entrance on the SE. Here too it is accompanied by an external ditch, outside which there is a concentric palisade trench, the latter possibly also visible as a low scarp at the NW end of the fort. A second entrance pierces both ramparts obliquely on the W, exposing the visitor's left side, and within the inner enclosure there are traces of at least five ring-ditch houses, only two of which appear on the plan. Conventionally the inner and outer enclosures have been seen as a contemporary scheme of defence, and the palisades would be regarded as an earlier phase of enclosure. Whether the former hypothesis can be neither demonstrated or contradicted on the basis of the field evidence, it is worth considering also that the palisade trenches here may be complementary elements in a contemporary defensive scheme with both stone and timber components.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -352322 Y: 7482996 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.1649655257072675 Latitude: 55.61928345595742 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Peeblesshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Peebles
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: 305.0m
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 an old dyke at the SE end, and a quarry has been cut across the defences on the NE |
Photographed by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1982, 1991, 1992 and 2010
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1775): | Camp symbol on top of a hill on Mostyn Armstrong's map of The County of Peebles or Tweedale (1775) |
| Earthwork Survey (1952): | Plan and description drawn up during the RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (RCAHMS 1967, 146-7, no.324, fig 138; RCAHMS PBD 146/1-3) |
| Other (1961): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1971): | Scheduled |
| Other (1974): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (2016): | Visited by S Halliday |
At least six ring-ditch houses
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Six ring-ditch houses
| 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: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (South east): | Passes through both ramparts at their widest separation |
| 2. Oblique (West): | Oblique approach exposing left side |
Two ramparts forming eccentric enclosures and accompanied on the line of easiest access by ditches with palisade trenches set beyond the counterscarp
| Area 1: | 0.16ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.49ha. |
| Total: | 0.49ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.65ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | Palisades omitted from the figures below |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 2 |
| 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 |
| ✓ | Only visible at one end |
Number of Ditches: 2
| ✗ | 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