LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Scottish Borders 55944 (None)
NMR: NT 54 SE 7 (55944)
SM: None
NGR: NT 5883 4012
X: 358830 Y: 640120 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on the W end of a low ridge and is the western of two standing no more than 250m apart to the ENE of Grizzelfield (see Atlas No.4005). First noted on the Map of the County of Berwick surveyed by Andrew and Mostyn Armstrong in 1771, it was ploughed down in the first half of the 19th century, but cropmarks have revealed its overall plan, and the remains of the inner rampart and ditch was still visible round most of the circuit when James Hewat Craw drew up a plan in 1911 (RCAHMS 1915, 76, no.134, fig 74); indeed, surviving traces of the rampart have been revealed by aerial photography in oblique evening light. Sub-oval in overall plan, with a distinct waist midway along its N and S sides, the cropmarks reveal that the defences represent two periods of construction, in which an originally sub circular enclosure about 60m in diameter (0.28ha) within a single rampart and ditch was extended westwards from the waist to form an enclosure measuring internally about 100m from E to W by 60m transversely (0.52ha); traces of the arc of the earlier ditch can be seen on the S side of the interior. In this second phase the ditch was about 6m broad and was accompanied by a much slighter ditch generally set about 5m outside its line, but not reflecting the 'waist', and thus indicating that it is probably an addition. On the N the shadow photographs suggest that a rampart stood between them, and this may well have been the case around the entire circuit. Entrances are visible in both ends, though they are not centrally placed and lie towards the S side, and the one on the E, where the terminals of the ditch are slightly staggered to either side, evidently also served the earlier enclosure. Apart from the earlier ditch, the only feature in the interior is what may be no more than a large oval pit.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -295644 Y: 7489625 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.6558179838338147 Latitude: 55.652894297837996 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Berwickshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Earlston
Heavily ploughed-down
| 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: 155.0m
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 down |
Photographed by CUCAP in 1967, and by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1980, 1981, 1983 1989, 1990, 1993, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2006 and 2015
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1771): | Concentric ring symbol on Andrew and Mostyn Armstrong's Map of the County of Berwick (1771) |
| Other (1883): | Noted by James Tait (1884, 309) |
| Earthwork Survey (1911): | Plan by James Hewat Craw and description (RCAHMS 1915, 76, no.134, fig 74; RCAHMS BWD 17/1) |
| Other (1955): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1962): | Visited by the OS |
One slightly elongated marks consistently appears in successive years, but no trace of any round-house
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 | ✗ |
Elongated feature, possibly no more than a large pit
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
See main summary
| 2: | None |
| 2: | None |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
| 1. Simple Gap (East): | There is a very slight stagger in the ditch terminals |
| 1. Oblique (East): | The stagger may indicate an oblique approach exposing the visitor's right side |
| 2. Simple Gap (West): | Clearly pierces both the inner and outer ditches |
Two phase ditch, with a second, outer, ditch added in the second phase, and traces of two upstanding ramparts
| Area 1: | 0.28ha. |
| Area 2: | 0.52ha. |
| Total: | 0.52ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 1.3ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | In the second phase |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| NW Quadrant: | 2 |
| 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 |
RCAHMS (1915) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Sixth report and Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the County of Berwick (Revised Issue). HMSO: Edinburgh
Tait, J (1884) 'On the Black Dyke and some British camps in the west of Berwickshire'. Hist Berwickshire Natur Club 10 (1882-4), 307-12
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