LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade
Satellite Imagery
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HER: Scottish Borders 60251 (None)
NMR: NT 96 SW 6 (60251)
SM: 12485
NGR: NT 9102 6087
X: 391020 Y: 660870 (OSGB36)
This fort, the western of two (See Atlas No.4134) is situated on a gently shelving slope dropping into a promontory formed at an angle of the escarpment on the NE side of the Eye Water WSW of Aytonlaw. The defences comprised three banks drawn in an arc across the N and NE approaches when first noted by James Hewat Craw about 1920 (1921, 241-2, fig 2), but continuing cultivation has now virtually erased all trace of them. Nevertheless, cropmarks have revealed three ditches, though a comparison with the measurements recorded by Craw suggests that the innermost, which is slighter than the outer two, is perhaps no more than a quarry ditch to the rear of the inner rampart. Assuming this interpretation is correct, the triangular interior, which is bounded by the escarpment on the SW and SE, measures about 65m in depth from NE to SW by up to 90m transversely (0.35ha) within the scar of the inner rampart. This measures between 5m and 7m wide and Its accompanying external ditch is about 6m broad; at an interval of a further 4m the outer ditch is between 4m and 5m broad. Craw's third bank presumably lay on the counterscarp of the outer ditch, and but for a faint scar on the W it is otherwise undetectable in the cropmarks. No entrance causeway is visible across the defences, which must have formed a continuous belt some 28m deep, and the only feature within the interior is an irregular macula.
Citizen Science: ✗
Reliability of Data: Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation: Confirmed
X: -238776 Y: 7526829 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -2.144956943285148 Latitude: 55.84100469489368 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Scottish Borders
Historic County: Berwickshire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Ayton
Effectively no longer visible, though traces of one of the ditches was still discernible in 1979
| 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: 60.0m
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: | Quaried on one side and otherwise ploughed down |
Photographed by CUCAP in 1948, 1959 and 1970 (St Joseph 1967, 148), by Dennis Harding in 1978, and by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1987, 1991, 1994, 1996 and 1999
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1771): | Concentric ring symbol on Andrew and Mostyn Armstrong's Map of the County of Berwick (1771) |
| Earthwork Survey (1920): | Plan and description by James Hewat Craw (1921, 241-2, fig 2) |
| Other (1948): | First photographed by CUCAP |
| Other (1954): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1966): | Visited by the OS |
| Other (1979): | Visited by RCAHMS |
| Other (2009): | Scheduled |
Featureless apart from an irregular macula
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 | ✗ |
An irregular macula
| APs Not Checked | ✗ |
| None | ✗ |
| Roundhouses | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures | ✗ |
| Pits | ✗ |
| Postholes | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks | ✗ |
| Other | ✓ |
See main summary
| 0: | Virtually ploughed flat |
| 2: | None known |
Guard Chambers: ✗
Chevaux de Frise: ✗
Two ramparts with external ditches and an outer counterscarp bank cutting off a promontory
| Area 1: | 0.35ha. |
| Total: | 0.35ha. |
Total Footprint Area: Noneha.
None
| ✗ | None |
| ✗ | None |
| NE Quadrant: | 3 |
| SE Quadrant: | 0 |
| SW Quadrant: | 0 |
| NW Quadrant: | 3 |
| Total: | 3 |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✓ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
| Unknown | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate | ✗ |
| Univallate | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate | ✗ |
| Bivallate | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate | ✗ |
| Multivallate | ✗ |
Heavily ploughed down and barely visible
| 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 |
| ✓ | This omits the internal quarry ditch |
Number of Ditches: 2
| ✗ | None |
Craw, J H (1921) 'Notes on Berwickshire Forts, with a description of those recently discovered'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 55 (1920-1), 231-55
St Joseph, J K (1967) Air reconnaissance: recent results, 10'. Antiquity 41 (1967), 148-9
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