LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Scottish Borders 53172 (None)
NMR: NT 33 NW 7 (53172)
SM: 2785
NGR: NT 3247 3677
X: 332470 Y: 636770 (OSGB36)
What is almost certainly a fort with a later settlement enclosure within its interior is situated on the summit of Caerlee Hill, which is the lower spur at the southern end of the ridge forming the W flank of the valley of the Leithen Water above Innerleithen. Oval on plan, the fortified enclosure measures internally about 110m from N to S by 75m transversely (0.65ha). Little trace of an inner rampart is visible, so much so that the RCAHMS investigators who drew up a plan in 1951 described the defences as comprising a bank with an internal quarry, which was further enhanced adjacent to the entrance on the NNW by an external ditch and a counterscarp bank facing into the saddle on the N. The investigators considered these to be the perimeter of an annexe encircling a smaller settlement enclosure on the summit, but this ignores the clear defensive position, and the way the well-defined inner lip of this internal quarry becomes a stony scarp in places on the W. Much more likely this is a defensive ditch and the inner rampart has been entirely robbed prior to the catastrophic quarrying that has devastated the E half of the interior and entirely removed half the settlement. The surviving portion of the latter measures about 45m across from N to S within a stony scarp, and encloses traces of six house platforms and a stony ring-bank which is probably the remains of a stone-founded round-house. In the course of 'digging' some years before 1864, possibly a euphemism for quarrying though apparently found on the W side of the stone dyke that traverses the fort, a small hoard including a bronze bracelet with expanded terminals was found within the fort (Chambers 1864, 22 fig 5, 37).
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -342178 Y: 7483107 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.0738346830515306 Latitude: 55.61984551917276 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Peeblesshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Innerleithen
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: 259.0m
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: | Traversed by stone dykes and devastated by quarrying |
Photographed by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1982, 1983 and 2010, and by CUCAP in 1953
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1856): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Peebles 1859, sheet 14.13) |
| Earthwork Survey (1863): | Poor sketch-plan and description by William Chambers (1864, 22 fig 5, 29, 36-7 fig 12) |
| Earthwork Survey (1886): | Sketch-plan and description by David Christison (1887, 51-3, fig 38) |
| Earthwork Survey (1951): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1967, 85, no.214, fig 33; RCAHMS PBD 54/1-4) |
| Other (1961): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1969): | Scheduled |
| Other (1973): | Revised at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (2004): | Re-Scheduled |
Apart from the inner settlement enclosure and the six house-platforms and stony ring-bank it encloses, the areas of the interior surviving unquarried are 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 | ✗ |
A hoard of bronze including a bracelet found in the 19th century (Chambers 1864, 22 fig 5, 37)
| No Known Finds | ✗ |
| Pottery | ✗ |
| Metal | ✓ |
| Metalworking | ✗ |
| Human Bones | ✗ |
| Animal Bones | ✗ |
| Lithics | ✗ |
| Environmental | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Within the inner settlement enclosure
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✓ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 5: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North west): | None |
Probably two ramparts with a medial ditch, further enhance on the weakest side by an external ditch and a counterscarp bank.
| Area 1: | 0.65ha. |
| Total: | 0.65ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | This excludes the internal settlement |
| 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 |
| ✓ | None |
Number of Ditches: 1
| ✗ | The feature previously considered the annexe is the fort |
Chambers, W (1864) A History of Peeblesshire. 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