Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016245
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016245
Dreva occupies a prime site, a rocky outcrop providing clear views both up and down the Tweed valley and westward to the broad and fertile bowl amongst the hills that contains the attractive village of Brought on and the key through-route to the upper Clyde-the Biggar Gap. A twin protector, Tinnis Castle and Fort (NT 141344) stands opposite, just east of Drumelzier.
Built of stone, the fort consists of two walls, each up to 4.3m thick at the base, faced on both sides with boulders and packed internally with stones. Whilst there is no evident contemporary settlement, secondary occupation within the inner wall is indicated by four stony rings and a fragment of a fifth built partly into the inner edge of-debris from the wall. The entrance is by a natural gully to the east-southeast, over 3.5m wide. Of the outer rampart most survives in an area north-west by west to south-west.
The remarkable thing about Dreva is that its prominent position evidently outweighed its relative lack of natural defences. Such shortcomings were alleviated, however, by a feature that is rare in Scotland: the chevaux de frise. About 100 stones, protecting access up the south-west slope beyond the outer wall, still stand upright over an area of some 650 square metres; many more, either broken stumps or lying loose in the grass, must have made this instrument of defence a formidable obstacle to horsemen or chariots-or even attackers on foot. And there may well have been a similar jagged barrier on the opposite north-east side, given the number of large upright boulders scattered amongst the remains of a later settlement.
This later settlement (NT 127353) and the one below the north-west side of the fort (NT 125353) were undefended. Below the latter, and extending across the road along the slope, is a fragmentary but clearly identifiable field-system (NT 125354-130357) which even now covers over 10 ha. Although the original shapes and sizes of the fields are lost, the remnants suggest 'Celtic' fields, as at Glenrath Hope (no. 88).
Beyond, on the lower slopes of Trehenna Hill, the considerable numbers of cultivation rigs are perhaps 18th century: they are not as wide, high and sinuous as earlier rigs.
Information from 'Exploring Scotland's Heritage: Lothian and Borders', (1985).
