LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: East Lothian Council MEL816 (None)
NMR: NT 57 NE 17 (56215)
SM: 4169
NGR: NT 5851 7655
X: 358515 Y: 676552 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on a terrace immediately above the steepest and highest part of the escarpment forming the N side of the River Tyne gorge. The plan of the fort is unusual with rounded angles on the NNE and WNW giving a rectilinear outline on the WSW, NNW and a short length of the adjacent ENE side, but to the SE the lip of the gorge cuts diagonally across it, reducing the overall shape to something more akin to a triangle measuring 140m from ENE to WSW by a maximum of 100m transversely (1.1ha) within three concentric ditches. The latter are between 3m and 4m in breadth, forming a belt about 20m deep, and allowing for the presence of an inner rampart the interior would have extended to about 1ha. The only clear feature within the interior is a minor ditch possibly forming an enclosure at the E end, though a geophysical survey may show it traversing the belt of defences. This survey has revealed the plan in greater detail than the cropmarks, including two entrances in the WSW side, the southern with staggered gaps that create an oblique approach exposing the visitor's right side; the northern entrance is more ragged, the gaps in the inner and middle ditches staggered to expose the left side, but not matched by the gap in the outer ditch. The survey also confirmed a gap in the middle ditch on the NNW, and the presence of a palisade trench between the inner and middle ditches, which is apparently continuous across the northern of the two entrances in the WSW side and, slightly more contentiously, possibly turns outwards through the southern. These hints that the perimeter is multiperiod is to some extent confirmed in an evaluation trench excavated in 2004 (Haselgrove and Hale 2009, 109-14), in which the ditches, the largest some 1.6m deep, provided evidence of re-cutting. Two radiocarbon samples, one from a carbonised seed in the inner ditch, and another from birch charcoal in the palisade trench produced dates in the final centuries of the 2nd millennium BC, while birch charcoal from the middle ditch was dated 390-200 BC. While it is possible that there is a major Bronze Age enclosure here, it is equally clear that many of the Iron Age enclosures recorded by cropmarks along the Lothian Plain are occupying the sites of unenclosed Bronze Age settlements, and that the Iron Age deposits often contain residual material. In the present state of knowledge, the single Iron Age date from this evaluation is likely to be a more reliable guide to the chronology of the defences at East Linton than the two earlier ones.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -296822 Y: 7554473 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.666393859555228 Latitude: 55.980191862070235 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: East Lothian
Historic County: East Lothian
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Prestonkirk
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: 61.0m
N/A
A carbonised seed in the inner ditch, and birch charcoal from the palisade trench have been dated to the final centuries of the 2nd millennium BC, while birch charcoal from the middle ditch dates 390-200 BC. While it is possible that there is a major Bronze Age enclosure here, the wider pattern of evaluations and dates in East Lothian suggests that many of the Iron Age enclosures recorded by cropmarks occupy the sites of unenclosed Bronze Age settlements, which has contaminated Iron Age deposits with residual material. In the present state of knowledge, the single Iron Age date from this evaluation is likely to be a more reliable guide to the chronology of the defences at East Linton than the two earlier ones.
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: | Three radiocarbon dates |
Photographed by CUCAP 1955, 1959, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1979, 1980 and 1981, by John Dewar in 1971 (held by RCAHMS), and RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 2000 and 2006
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1954): | Identification and description during RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands |
| Other (1962): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1979): | Scheduled |
| Geophysical Survey (2004): | (Haselgrove and Hale 2009, 110) |
| Excavation (2004): | Evaluation (Carne et al 2004; Haselgrove and Hale 2009, 109-14) |
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 | ✗ |
No clear features but several anomalies
| 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
| 3: | The whole circuit has been ploughed flat |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Oblique (South west): | Staggered gaps. Oblique approach exposing right side |
| 1. Simple Gap (South west): | None |
| 2. Simple Gap (South west): | Staggered gaps in the middle and inner ditches, creating an oblique approach exposing left side, but the outer gap is offset in the opposite direction |
| 2. Simple Gap (South west): | None |
| 3. Blocked (North west): | The gap in the middle ditch is not matched by gaps in either the inner or the outer ditches. |
Three ditches, presumably with upcast ramparts, and together with a palisade trench between the inner and middle ones representing several periods of construction and re-cutting.
| Area 1: | 1.0ha. |
| Total: | 1.0ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 1.7ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| 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 | ✗ |
Not visible on the surface; palisade trench revealed by cropmarks
| None | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank | ✗ |
| Stone Wall | ✗ |
| Rubble | ✗ |
| Wall-walk | ✗ |
| Evidence of Timber | ✗ |
| Vitrification | ✗ |
| Other Burning | ✗ |
| Palisade | ✓ |
| Counter Scarp Bank | ✗ |
| Berm | ✗ |
| Unfinished | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
palisade and three ditches
| 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 |
Carne, Hale and Haselgrove, P, D and C (2004) 'Traprain Law Environs Project (Whitekirk & Tyninghame; Prestonkirk parishes), enclosure cropmarks'. Disc Exc Scot, New Ser, 5 (2004), 46-7
Haselgrove, C and Hale, D (2009) 'The evaluations at East Bearford, Foster Law and East Linton'. 99-115 in Haselgrove, C (2009) The Traprain Law Environs Project: Fieldwork and Excavations 2000-2004. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland: Edinburgh
Maxwell, G S (1970) 'Early rectilinear enclosures in the Lothians'. Scot Archaeol Forum 2 (1970), 86-90 (p 89)
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