Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland

SC4167 Falkirk, Callendar Woods, Stirlingshire

LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade

LiDAR 1m DTM Hillshade

Satellite Imagery

Satellite Imagery

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HER:  Falkirk Community Trust, Falkirk Sites and Monuments Record 1188 (None)

NMR:  NS 87 NE 180 (282665)

SM:  None

NGR:  NS 8960 7870

X:  289600  Y:  678700  (OSGB36)

Summary

What is probably a fort or fortified settlement is situated in woodland on a spur dropping down gently from higher ground to the W beside New Hallglen Road. An irregular oval on plan, with a roughly squared ESE end, it measures internally about 135m from E to W by 65m transversely (0.84ha). If there is an inner rampart, it has been largely reduced to a scarp, which, where most pronounced at the E end, falls up to 3m into the bottom of an external ditch, and there is a counterscarp bank surviving along the N flank and on the SW. Apart from a later boundary traversing the E end from NNE to SSW, the interior is featureless beneath the scrub and trees, and in addition to gaps where a long established woodland track cuts across the perimeter at the NE angle and on the W, and a minor break on the SW, there is what appears to be a substantial entrance at the SE angle.

Status

Citizen Science:  ✗

Reliability of Data:  Confirmed

Reliability of Interpretation:  Confirmed

Location

X:  -419817  Y:  7556141  (EPSG: 3857)

Longitude:  -3.7712788632821175  Latitude:  55.98856977403409  (EPSG:4326)

Country:  Scotland

Current County or Unitary Authority:  Falkirk

Historic County:  Stirlingshire

Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland:  Falkirk

Monument Condition

None

Condition:
Extant   ✓
Cropmark   ✗
Likely Destroyed   ✗

Land Use

Public park

Current Use:
Woodland   ✓
Commercial Forestry Plantation   ✗
Parkland   ✗
Pasture (Grazing)   ✗
Arable   ✗
Scrub/Bracken   ✓
Bare Outcrop   ✗
Heather/Moorland   ✗
Heath   ✗
Built-up   ✗
Coastal Grassland   ✗
Other   ✗

Landscape

Hillfort Type

None

Type:
Contour Fort   ✓
Partial Contour Fort   ✗
Promontory Fort   ✗
Hillslope Fort   ✗
Level Terrain Fort   ✗
Marsh Fort   ✗
Multiple Enclosure Fort   ✗

Topographic Position

Position:
Hilltop   ✗
Coastal Promontory   ✗
Inland Promontory   ✗
Valley Bottom   ✗
Knoll/Hillock/Outcrop   ✗
Ridge   ✗
Cliff/Plateau-edge/Scarp   ✗
Hillslope   ✗
Lowland   ✗
Spur   ✓

Dominant Topographic Feature:  None

Aspect:
North   ✗
Northeast   ✗
East   ✗
Southeast   ✗
South   ✗
Southwest   ✗
West   ✗
Northwest   ✗
Level   ✓

Altitude:  110.0m

Boundary

N/A


Dating Evidence

In the absence of excavation the date of this enclosure is unknown

Reliability:  D - None

Principal Activity:
Pre 1200BC   ✗
1200BC - 800BC   ✗
800BC - 400BC   ✗
400BC - AD50   ✗
AD50 - AD400   ✗
AD400 - AD 800   ✗
Post AD800   ✗
Unknown   ✓

Other Activity:
Pre Hillfort:   None
Post Hillfort:   Planted with trees, cut through with a woodland track, and traversed by what is probably an earlier boundary

Evidence:No related records

Investigation History

None

Investigations:
1st Identified Written Reference (2002):   Discovered by Geoff Bailey (2005)
Earthwork Survey (2011):   Plan and description (Shaw and Edwards 2011, 3, fig 6)

Interior Features

Featureless

Water Source

None

Source:
None   ✓
Spring   ✗
Stream   ✗
Pool   ✗
Flush   ✗
Well   ✗
Other   ✗

Surface

None

Interior Features (Surface):
No Known Features   ✓
Round Stone Structures   ✗
Rectangular Stone Structures   ✗
Curvilinear Platforms   ✗
Other Roundhouse Evidence   ✗
Pits   ✗
Quarry Hollows   ✗
Other   ✗

Excavation

None

Interior Features (Excavation):
No Known Excavation   ✓
Pits   ✗
Postholes   ✗
Roundhouses   ✗
Rectangular Structures   ✗
Roads/Tracks   ✗
Quarry Hollows   ✗
Other   ✗
Nothing Found   ✗

Geophysics

None

Interior Features (Geophysics):
No Known Geophysics   ✓
Pits   ✗
Roundhouses   ✗
Rectangular Structures   ✗
Roads/Tracks   ✗
Quarry Hollows   ✗
Other   ✗
Nothing Found   ✗

Finds

None

Interior (Finds):
No Known Finds   ✓
Pottery   ✗
Metal   ✗
Metalworking   ✗
Human Bones   ✗
Animal Bones   ✗
Lithics   ✗
Environmental   ✗
Other   ✗

Aerial

Obscured by trees

Interior Features (Aerial):
APs Not Checked   ✗
None   ✓
Roundhouses   ✗
Rectangular Structures   ✗
Pits   ✗
Postholes   ✗
Roads/Tracks   ✗
Other   ✗

Entrances

None

Total Number of Breaks Through Ramparts:  
4:   The minor gap on the SW is unlikely to be original, though the gaps taken by the woodland track may have been adapted from earlier breaks

Number of Possible Original Entrances:  
2:   None

Guard Chambers:  ✗

Chevaux de Frise:  ✗

Entrances:
1. Simple Gap (South east):   Only place on the circuit where the plan shows possible evidence of an internal rampart

Enclosing Works

Probably a rampart an ditch with a counterscarp bank

Enclosed Area:
Area 1:   0.84ha.
Total:   0.84ha.

Total Footprint Area:  Noneha.

Ramparts

None

Multi-period Enclosure System:
✗   None

Ramparts Form a Continuous Circuit:
✓   None

Number of Ramparts:  
NE Quadrant:   1
SE Quadrant:   1
SW Quadrant:   1
NW Quadrant:   1
Total:   1

Morphology

Current Morphology:
Partial Univallate   ✗
Univallate   ✓
Partial Bivallate   ✗
Bivallate   ✗
Partial Multivallate   ✗
Multivallate   ✗
Unknown   ✗

Detailed Morphology:
Partial Univallate   ✗
Univallate   ✗
Partial Bivallate   ✗
Bivallate   ✗
Partial Multivallate   ✗
Multivallate   ✗

Surface Evidence

None

Enclosing Works (Surface):
None   ✗
Earthen Bank   ✓
Stone Wall   ✗
Rubble   ✗
Wall-walk   ✗
Evidence of Timber   ✗
Vitrification   ✗
Other Burning   ✗
Palisade   ✗
Counter Scarp Bank   ✗
Berm   ✗
Unfinished   ✗
Other   ✗

Excavated Evidence

None

Enclosing Works (Excavation):
None   ✗
Earthen Bank   ✗
Stone Wall   ✗
Murus Duplex   ✗
Timber-framed   ✗
Timber-laced   ✗
Vitrification   ✗
Other Burning   ✗
Palisade   ✗
Counter Scarp Bank   ✗
Berm   ✗
Unfinished   ✗
No Known Excavation   ✓
Other   ✗

Other

Gang Working:
✗   None

Ditches:
✓   None

Number of Ditches:  1

Annex:
✗   None

References

Bailey, G (2005) 'Callendar Woods, Falkirk (Falkirk parish), Hillfort'. Disc Exc Scot, New Ser, 6 (2005), 70

Shaw, R and Edwards, B (2011) Keir Plantation, Kincardine; Castlehill Wood, Kincardine; Callandar Wood, Falkirk: Archaeological Topographic Survey of three Forts in the Scottis Lowlands. Unpublished Survey Report on behalf of the Forestry Commission.



Terms of Use

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


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