LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
Scroll left/right to view further images.
HER: East Lothian Council MEL674 (None)
NMR: NT 56 NE 2 (56073)
SM: 745
NGR: NT 5800 6618
X: 358000 Y: 666180 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on the NW end of the elongated summit of a hill on the SW side of the B6355 public road at the foot of the Lammermuir escarpment. Oval on plan, it measures 117m from NW to SE by 104m transversely (1ha) within a rampart and ditch accompanied by a counterscarp bank. The inner rampart is spread some 5m thick and stand up to 1.6m high internally, and when revisited in 1954 by RCAHMS investigators they considered that it was the remains of a wall, possibly erected on an earlier bank. The ditch is up to 5m in breadth by 1.2m deep, while the slighter counterscarp bank is about 2m in thickness by 0.4m in height. Causeways across the ditch indicate the positions of original entrances on the S and WSW, while a gap in the inner rampart on the E appears to be a later break; a quarry has also been driven through the defences on the NW. Apart from a circular depression noted adjacent to the quarry, the interior is featureless. Probably following the abandonment of the defences, the SE quarter of the perimeter was incorporated into the line of a linear boundary, the stubs of the ditches of which can be seen cutting through the counterscarp bank on the E and SSE; at the latter, the ditch is flanked by banks on either lip, while in the fields to the NE and S the line of the ditch can be traced in lines of pits revealed by cropmarks.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -297560 Y: 7535946 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.6730290839416835 Latitude: 55.88696140817838 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: East Lothian
Historic County: East Lothian
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Garvald And Bara
None
| Extant | ✓ |
| Cropmark | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed | ✗ |
Formerly a plantation but now taken out of trees
| 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: 281.0m
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: | The perimeter was incorporated into the line of a pit-defined linear earthwork, and more recently probably cultivated before being Incorporated into a plantation (probably by 1773); there is also a sandstone quarry within the interior |
Photographed by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1988, 1992, 1995, 2007, 2008 and 2010
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1773): | Concentric ring symbol on Andrew and Mostyn Armstrong's Map of the three Lothians (1773) |
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1794): | Noted (Stat Acct, xiii, 1794. 362n) |
| Other (1853): | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Haddingtonshire 1855, sheet 15) |
| Other (1892): | Depicted on the OS 25-inch map (Haddingtonshire 1894, sheet 16.5) |
| Earthwork Survey (1913): | Plan and description (RCAHMS 1924, 34-5, no.50, fig 69; RCAHMS ELD 5/1 & ELD 76/2V) |
| Other (1923): | Scheduled |
| Other (1954): | Description during RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands (Feachem 1963, 123) |
| Other (1963): | Re-Scheduled |
| Other (1965): | Resurveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
Probably cultivated before being planted with trees, it is featureless apart from a shallow depression adjacent a later quarry on the NW
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Circular depression
| 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 | ✗ |
NO APPARENT FEATURES
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✓ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
See main summary
| 4: | A quarry has broken through on the NW, and another gap broken on the E |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (South): | None |
| 2. Simple Gap (West): | None |
Twin ramparts with a medial ditch
| Area 1: | 1.0ha. |
| Total: | 1.0ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 1.7ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| NW Quadrant: | 1 |
| 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: 1
| ✗ | None |
Feachem, R W (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London
RCAHMS (1924) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Eighth report with Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the County of East Lothian. 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