LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: East Lothian Council MEL700 (None)
NMR: NT 56 NE 43 (56099)
SM: None
NGR: NT 5550 6773
X: 355505 Y: 667739 (OSGB36)
Cropmarks on aerial photographs and subsequent invasive evaluations have located a fort or fortified settlement on the sloping ground above Sheriffside. Roughly circular on plan, it measures about 110m in internal diameter (0.95ha), and the results of invasive evaluations carried out 2013-15 have revealed a complex history in which at least four successive lines of palisading have been identified, and two ditches 6m and 7m broad respectively and up to 2.9m in depth in depth, the outer of which re-cuts a smaller ditch on the same line and may itself contain evidence of re-cutting. In the most recent report of the work the excavators have advanced a sequence of nine general periods of activity based upon stratigraphy and radiocarbon dates (Cook and Connolly 2015, 14), albeit that elsewhere in the data structure reports they also advance several caveats for the taphonomical relationship of the samples to the stratigraphical contexts. This sequence begins with two phases of palisading in the Early Iron Age, with a third phase possibly in the 3rd/4th centuries BC. The two ditches have produced three dates spanning the 1st-4th centuries AD, though none of these come from basal contexts and may bear little relationship to the dates at which the ditches were first cut; the earlier ditch recut by the outer is also completely undated. The fourth palisade trench, however is cut through the fill of the outer ditch and thus dates from after the 3rd/4th centuries AD. A date around the turn of the 1st millennium BC from a terraced feature on the SE, interpreted by the excavators as 'a scooped settlement' is more likely to be from a linear quarry scoop behind a rampart, though the only evidence of the rampart is a slight bleaching of the cropmarks in the SE quarter. The disjuncture between this date and those from the ditch fills highlights the problem of dating the construction of defensive circuits on limited data, but the date from the quarry scoop is possibly a more reliable guide to the chronology of the circuit of ramparts and ditches. Finds from the excavations include pottery, coarse stone tools and several polished stones.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -302029 Y: 7538682 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.713170818943862 Latitude: 55.90074349489631 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: East Lothian
Historic County: East Lothian
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Yester
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: 198.0m
N/A
Insufficient information is available to assess the taphonomy of the samples and their relationships to their contexts from which they were taken, and while the excavators place the circuits of ramparts and ditches in the early centuries AD, they may date from the final centuries BC, while the palisaded boundaries are older again.
Reliability: C - Low
| Pre 1200BC | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC | ✗ |
| 800BC - 400BC | ✓ |
| 400BC - AD50 | ✓ |
| AD50 - AD400 | ✓ |
| AD400 - AD 800 | ✗ |
| Post AD800 | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Pre Hillfort: | None |
| Post Hillfort: | None |
| C14: | Seven radiocarbon dates from evaluations, ranging from 7th century BC to the 4th century AD |
None
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1981): | First photographed by the RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme |
| Excavation (2011): | Evaluation (Connolly et al 2011) |
| Geophysical Survey (2011): | By Edinburgh Archaeological Field Society as part of the evaluation (Connolly et al 2011, 8, fig 3) |
| Excavation (2012): | Evaluation (Cook et al 2012) |
| Geophysical Survey (2012): | By Edinburgh Archaeological Field Society as part of the evaluation (Cook et al 2011, 5, fig 2) |
| Excavation (2014): | Evaluation (Cook and Connoly 2015) |
Apart from the internal quarry scoop, which is also visible on the aerial photographs, the evaluations only encountered pits and post-holes within the interior
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 | ✗ |
Coarse stone tools and several polished stones
| 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 | ✗ |
None known
| 0: | Ploughed flat |
| 2: | Not known |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
At least two ditches, presumably with upcast ramparts, around the uphill side, but possibly only a single rampart and ditch elsewhere
| Area 1: | 0.95ha. |
| Total: | 0.95ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| NW Quadrant: | 1 |
| 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: 2
| ✗ | None |
Connolly, D, Cook, M, Dinning, S, Druce, D and Rocks-Macqueen, D (2011) Sheriffside, Gifford, East Lothian Data Structure Report. 2. Available https://www.rampartscotland.co.uk/index.php/publications/
Cook, M, Connolly, D and Druce, D (2012) Sheriffside, Gifford, East Lothian Season 2: Data Structure Report. Available https://www.rampartscotland.co.uk/index.php/publications/
Cook, M, Connolly, D (2015) Sheriffside, Gifford, East Lothian Season 3: Data Structure Report. Available https://www.rampartscotland.co.uk/index.php/publications/
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