Note
Date 3 April 2017
Event ID 1108063
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1108063
The distinctive cone of North Berwick Law, which rises abruptly above the surrounding countryside from a height of about 65m to its summit at 187m OD, is the site of a large fort. Its defences are fragmentary, according to Richard Feachem, who drew up a plan for RCAHMS in 1954, comprising three ramparts: the first encircles the summit of the hill; the second takes in a lower terrace on the SW; and the third drops down on either flank to enclose the lower slopes on SW, including a broad terrace extending out to the lip of the disused Law Quarry. Feachem notes that the inner rampart encloses an area measuring about 150m from NE to SW by 90m transversely (1963, 119), though there is little trace of it along the rocky NW and SE flanks, and the last sight of the SW side on the SE would suggest a rather large transverse measurement in the order of 135m (1.7ha). The second rampart on the SW is more fragmentary, and while aerial photographs indicate a band of stony debris about 60m further down the slope from the inner, a survey carried out by Headland Archaeology in 2000-1 failed to identify any trace of a rampart here (Lowe and Dalland 2001; archived RCAHMS MS1039/72). The leading edge of the third rampart has been destroyed by the quarry along most of the SW side, but finds from exposures in the quarry revealed midden and other evidence of occupation leading, while on both the W and E the course of the rampart can be followed, forming a terrace climbing obliquely up the slope. The greater part of the interior is bare rock outcrop, but on the lower slopes within the compass of the third rampart, which encloses an overall area of about 9.4ha, a series of hut-circles and house platforms can be seen strung across natural terraces on the lower slopes on the S, while on the gentler slope below them at least two lynchets of a small field-system can also be distinguished. The only entrance visible in the lower rampart lies on the SE, giving access to the lower slopes on the S from the E; the entrances through the upper ramparts are probably marked by clefts in the outcrops taken by modern footpaths. The quarrying at the foot of the slope exposed midden in deposits up to 0.7m deep.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 03 April 2017. Atlas of Hillforts -SC3896
