LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Scottish Borders 58778 (None)
NMR: NT 76 SE 7 (58778)
SM: 379
NGR: NT 7509 6292
X: 375090 Y: 662920 (OSGB36)
This fort is situated on the SW end of the summit of Shannabank Hill, at the top of a steep defile dropping down on the W to the left bank of the Monynut Water, but its ramparts are heavily reduced and the whole fort has been cultivated in low rigs. Oval on plan, it measures internally about 73m from N to S by 55m transversely, and around most of the circuit its defences comprise two ramparts set about 12m apart, the exception being along the steep W flank, where only the inner is visible. Both have been reduced to low stony banks, the inner spread 6m in thickness by 0.4m in height, and the outer 5.3m by 0.7m respectively, and there are only the slightest traces of any accompanying ditches. There are no clearly defined entrances, though James Hewat Craw's plan (RCAHMS 1915, 2-3, no.3, fig 1) shows gaps in the inner rampart on the NNW, N, E and SSW, the first and the last also appearing on the depiction on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Berwick 1862, sheet 10.1). Several vague hollows within the interior are possibly ploughed over house platforms, and on the NNE a small late Iron Age settlement enclosure appears to impinge upon the outer rampart. The scooped interior of this enclosure measures 25m from ESE to WNW by 21m transversely and contains at least one house platform, while immediately on its SE there is a possible stone-founded round-house.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -267113 Y: 7530370 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.3995157945524985 Latitude: 55.85886111204845 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Berwickshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Abbey St Bathans
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: 245.0m
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: | Probably overlain by a late Iron Age settlement, and heavily reduced and ploughed over in the post-medieval period |
None
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1857): | Annotated Camp on the 1st edition OS 25-inch map (Berwick 1862, sheet 10.1) |
| Other (1894): | Brief description by David Christison, possibly without a visit (1895, 158) |
| Other (1908): | Description (RCAHMS 1909, 1-2, no. 5 |
| Earthwork Survey (1912): | Plan by James Hewat Craw and description (RCAHMS 1915, 2-3, no.3, fig 1; RCAHMS BWD 19/1; BWD 19/1/4 & DP225406) |
| Other (1936): | Scheduled |
| Other (1954): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1966): | Surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS |
| Other (1979): | Description by RCAHMS |
James Hewat Craw's plan (RCAHMS 1915, 2-3, no.3, fig 1) shows three circular structures on the NW side of the interior, another two overlying the inner rampart on the E, and a sixth outside the rampart on the N, and when the OS resurveyed the fort at 1:2500 in 1966 they suggested there were traces of no fewer than fourteen, but in 1979 RCAHMS investigators were not so convinced and within the interior of the fort, which has been subjected to rig and furrow cultivation, they observed only a few vague hollows that may mark the stances of round-houses
None
| None | ✓ |
| Spring | ✗ |
| Stream | ✗ |
| Pool | ✗ |
| Flush | ✗ |
| Well | ✗ |
| Other | ✗ |
Possible traces of house platforms within the interior and one possible stone-founded round-house outside the later settlement enclosure on the N
| 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: | The whole circuit has been heavily reduced |
| 2: | No clearly defined entrances are visible |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
Twin ramparts around most of the circuit, reducing to one along the steep W flankl
| Area 1: | 0.33ha. |
| Total: | 0.33ha. |
Total Footprint Area: 0.6ha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✓ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SE Quadrant: | 2 |
| SW Quadrant: | 2 |
| 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 |
| ✗ | Heavily ploughed down but possible traces of ditches accompanying the ramparts |
Number of Ditches: None
| ✗ | 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
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