LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Scottish Borders 57391 (None)
NMR: NT 65 NE 1 (57391)
SM: 5003
NGR: NT 6722 5845
X: 367220 Y: 658450 (OSGB36)
The remains of this fortification are situated low down on the SW flank of Wrunklaw, on a sloping promontory formed between the steep slope dropping down to the N bank of the Dye Water and a shallow stream gully descending obliquely across the hillside. The site of a farmstead during the late 18th century, which was itself superseded by a shepherd's cottage in the early 19th century, the promontory is occupied by the footings of a series of rectangular buildings and attached yards, but on the NW these override two ramparts and ditches set some 27m apart. These bar access from the NW and the inner may also extend along the SW flank down to the tip of the promontory, enclosing a D-shaped area measuring about 70m from NW to SE along the chord by a maximum of 50m transversely (0.25ha). The outer ditch, which is over 10m broad by 3.5m in depth is visible only on the SW of a central entrance, but at the SW margin of the promontory it opens into an irregular gash that plunges down the slope to the very bottom of the valley. The precise origin of this feature is unclear, cutting across the line of a terraced trackway obliquely mounting the slope; indeed, traces of three trackways can be seen on the slope immediately below the interior, and though their precise relationship to the inner rampart is ambiguous, this appears to have been a long-standing point of access into the interior.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -281048 Y: 7522315 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.5246977748211474 Latitude: 55.81822709809389 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Berwickshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Longformacus
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: 280.0m
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: | Occupied by numerous rectangular buildings and yards |
Photographed by CUCAP in 1970, and by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1984 and 1993
| Other (1857): | Earthworks depicted as topographical features on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Berwick 1862, sheets 9.10 & 9.14) |
| 1st Identified Written Reference (1882): | Noted (Farquharson 1884, 24) |
| Earthwork Survey (1894): | Sketch-plan and description by David Christison (1895, 156-7, fig 22) |
| Other (1908): | Description (RCAHMS 1909, 43, no.209) |
| Earthwork Survey (1912): | Plan by James Hewat Craw and description (RCAHMS 1915, 129-30, no.248, fig 122; RCAHMS BWD 20/1 & DP225399; BWD 20/1/5 |
| Other (1954): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1963): | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1979): | Surveyed at 1:10,000 by the OS |
| Other (1979): | Description by RCAHMS, who suggest that the remains may include an earlier hall and that the earthworks may be of medieval date |
| Other (1991): | Scheduled |
| Earthwork Survey (2015): | Structure from motion plan prepared by David Connelly, but as yet unpublished |
Occupied by later rectangular buildings and yards, most of which probably date from the late 18th and early 19th centuries
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Mostly dating from the late 18th and early 19th centuries
| 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 | ✗ |
None
| 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. Hollow Way (South west): | No defined entrance but approached by a well-defined trackway |
| 2. Simple Gap (North west): | None |
Two ramparts and ditches cutting off a promontory, the inner probably extending round its SW flank
| Area 1: | 0.25ha. |
| Total: | 0.25ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.33ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| SW Quadrant: | 1 |
| 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 |
Christison, D (1895) 'The forts of Selkirk, the Gala Water, the Southern slopes of the Lammermoors, and the north of Roxburgh'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 29 (1894-50), 108-79
Farquharson, J (1884) 'Address delivered to the Berwickshire Naturalists Club, at Selkirk, October 11th 1882'. Hist Berwickshire Natur Club 10 (1882-4), 1- 64
RCAHMS (1909) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. First report and Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the County of Berwick. HMSO: Edinburgh.
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
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