LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Midlothian per East Lothian Council MEL8278 (None)
NMR: NT 36 NE 21 (53342)
SM: 6268
NGR: NT 3730 6638
X: 337309 Y: 666384 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on the rounded summit towards the ENE end of a long ridge which shelves away gently past Fordel Mains to the ENE. Oval on plan, its defences comprise two elements, namely an outer enclosure comprising two concentric ditches set between 6m and 8m apart, and a slightly eccentric inner enclosure with a single ditch no more than 3.5m in breadth lying between 10m and 15m within the outer pair. The inner enclosure measures internally about 110m from ENE to WSW by a maximum of 90m transversely (0.87ha), its SE arc disappearing into the edge of the field that traverses this side of the fort from NE to SW. The internal dimensions of the outer enclosure are 150m and 135m respectively (1.7ha), and its perimeter gives the impression of a coherent scheme in which the inner ditch is some 6m in breadth and the outer 4m. It is pierced by at least one entrance on the SE and possibly a second on the W, though this and the NW flank are obscured by natural cropmarkings. The only feature visible within the interior, which allowing for the presence of an inner rampart extends to about 1.4ha, is a roughly square ditched enclosure measuring about 22m across; this intersects the perimeter of the inner enclosure on the ENE, immediately S of what on one of the photographs appears to be an entrance. The absence of a corresponding gap in the outer defences tentatively confirms the impression that the inner and outer enclosures represent separate schemes, though whether the implied blocking of an earlier entrance in the inner is the correct interpretation can only be demonstrated by excavation.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -334384 Y: 7535862 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -3.0038213732127854 Latitude: 55.88654188019517 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Midlothian
Historic County: Midlothian
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Newbattle
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: 194.0m
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: | Ploughed flat and overlain by a field boundary |
Photographed by CUCAP in 1962 and 1976, and RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1976, 1983 and 1989 1995
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1962): | Photographed by CUCAP |
| Other (1995): | Scheduled |
Diffuse natural cropmarks obscure much of the interior, which is htus featureless apart from the square enclosure on the ENE
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 | ✗ |
Square enclosure
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
See main summary
| 3: | None |
| 2: | Generalised to the outer circuit, with an additional entry below for a gap in the inner ditch |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (North east): | Through the inner enclosure, but blocked off by the outer ditches |
| 2. Simple Gap (South east): | Through the outer ditches |
| 3. Simple Gap (West): | Through the outer ditches |
Three ditches representing inner and outer enclosures, the latter defended by two ditches, presumably with upcast ramparts.
| Area 1: | 0.87ha. |
| Area 2: | 1.4ha. |
| Total: | 1.4ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✓ | The eccentric course of the inner enclosure, the slightness of its ditch, and the entrance sealed off by the outer ditches, implies at least two phases of construction |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SW Quadrant: | 3 |
| NW Quadrant: | 3 |
| 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: 3
| ✗ | None |
No related records
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