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Publication Account

Date 1985

Event ID 1016249

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016249

Separated by no more than 4km one from each other, fine fortified settlements hover on the hill promontories east of the Leader Water. Some are oval-Addinston (NT 523536), an irregular silhouette on the ridge above the A 697/A 68 immediately south of Carfraemilli or Longcroft (NT 532543), up the side valley from Addinston and high above the meeting of two bums. Tollis Hill, by contrast, is an almost perfect circle, over 90m across internally, and enclosed by a double rampart and intervening ditch. Where these defences are best preserved, towards the west and north, the inner rampart is still 3.6m-4m above the bottom of the ditch and nearly 1m-1.2m above the level of the interior. The outer rampart is rather modest and more by way of a parapet on top of the counterscarp; the distance across the ditch between the two crests, however, is almost 9m.

A well-preserved entrance on the west, 1.8m-2.4m wide, is flanked either wide by the ends of the ramparts brought round in a loop; and, whilst other entrances to the south and east are probably modem, that to the north might also be original.

There are a large number of hut circles within the ramparts, some of them joined together by short sections of straight wallingi there are also several larger enclosures which, to judge from their size, may have been sheepfolds.

To look north and north-east to the top of the Lammermuir ridge, to look east and south-east over the slightly lower Lammermuir plateau is to appreciate the attraction of these lands. Climate permitting, they are fine lands for stock grazing, for some arable and for settlement Some 10km south-south-east, for instance, stands the impressive ruinous settlement of Haerfaulds (NT 574500), 'ancient folds' in Anglian times, on open moorland steeply above the 'Blythe Water. An oval structure, some 116m by 73m, is surrounded by the remains of a massive stone wall at least 3m thick originally, and possibly timber-faced. Many circular stone hut circles abut the inner face of the wall, some are built in its tumble; these presumably represent local building developments and occupation in Romano-British time.

Forts, cairns, stone circles litter this landscape-with a standing stone by the side of the road just east of the Tollis Hill house. And what of the west side of the Leader Water?-forts at Bowerhouse (NT 490509) and Blackchester (NT 507504); a settlement at Trabrown (NT 504487); a much earlier though now barely distinguishable henge at Overhowden (NT 486522).

Information from 'Exploring Scotland's Heritage: Lothian and Borders', (1985).

People and Organisations

References