Satellite Imagery
Satellite Imagery
HER: City of Edinburgh No record found (None)
NMR: NT 27 SE 38 (52425)
SM: 13032
NGR: NT 2700 7326
X: 327009 Y: 673262 (OSGB36)
This forts occupies the upper slopes on the eastern flank of Salisbury Crags, where a single rampart has been drawn across the hillside. Capped by a later dyke, the rampart has been reduced to a terrace measuring about 4m in breadth and 0.6m in height along its leading edge, which can be traced over a distance of about 320m from the cliff-edge on the SSW to the edge of the Camstone Quarry on the NNE; the overlying bank turns NNW to skirt the quarry, but the rampart is clearly cut. Its line descends obliquely across the across the contour and presumably rested on the cliff-edge on the N side of the quarry, thus enclosing an area measuring some 560m from N to S by 250m transversely (9.6ha) against the lip of the crags. No entrances are visible and, apart from elements of the later rifle ranges, the interior is featureless.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -352918 Y: 7547847 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.170314408420956 Latitude: 55.94687535419173 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: City of Edinburgh
Historic County: Midlothian
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Edinburgh
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 | ✗ |
Interior ranges from 125m to 174m OD
| 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: 174.0m
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 a later dyke, cut by quarries around which there are traces of rig, and also latterly used for a rifle range. |
Photographed by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme as part of the more general recording of the archeology of the park.
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1947): | Noted by Robert Stevenson (1947, 168; RCAHMS 1951, 247-8, no.208, fig 429) |
| Earthwork Survey (1961): | Plan drawn up by Richard Feachem (RCAHMS EDD 402/1) |
| Other (1998): | Mapped and description (RCAHMS 1999) |
| Other (2013): | Scheduled |
Featureless apart from the riffle range, rig and furrow, two small rectangular structures and the quarry.
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 whetstone (Canmore 52240)
| 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 | ✗ |
Not known
| 0: | None |
| 2: | None known |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
Single rampart
| Area 1: | 9.6ha. |
| Total: | 9.6ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 0 |
| Total: | 1 |
| 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 |
RCAHMS (1951) The Royal Commission on the Ancient Monuments of Scotland. An inventory of the ancient and historical monuments of the city of Edinburgh with the thirteenth report of the Commission. HMSO: Edinburgh
RCAHMS. (1999) The Royal Commission on the Ancient Monuments of Scotland. Holyrood Park: the archaeology of the Royal Park, RCAHMS Broadsheet 6. RCAHMS: Edinburgh
Stevenson, R B K (1947) 'Farms and fortifications in the King's Park, Edinburgh'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 81 (1946-7), 158-70
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