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Field Visit
Date 18 July 1990 - 13 February 1996
Event ID 1150207
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1150207
NY 1285 9086 NY19SW 7
The remains of what are probably two successive palisaded enclosures and an overlying fort are situated in pasture on the SW shoulder of Broomhillbank Hill.
The palisaded enclosures are roughly concentric, the inner palisade trench being marked by little more than a shallow groove in the turf, and the outer set into the crest of a low bank; it is unclear which of the two is the earlier. Only the E arc of the inner palisade (0.5m broad and 0.1m deep) is visible lying immediately outside the defences of the later fort, but, it may have enclosed a roughly circular area measuring about 75m in diameter. The later defences have also obliterated all but the E arc of the outer enclosure, but enough survives to suggest that it enclosed an area measuring about 100m by 85m. The palisade trench is of similar dimensions to the inner, forming a groove in the crest of a grass-grown bank which measures 5m in thickness by 0.4m in height and is flanked on both sides by shallow quarry-scoops up to 2.5m broad and 0.2m deep.
The fort is roughly oval on plan, measuring internally about 80m from NNE to SSW by 57m transversely. On the E, where the earthworks are best preserved, the defences comprise twin ramparts and ditches, but on the W ploughing has reduced the inner rampart to a scarp, and there is no evidence of the outer rampart and ditch. The two ramparts measures up to 5.3m in thickness by 0.7m in height, and the accompanying ditches up to 3.1m broad and 0.4m deep. The entrance, its N rampart terminal slightly inturned, lies on the SW, and is approached from the exterior by a trackway which becomes a hollow-way as it passes through the rampart. The interior has been cultivated and no traces of any structures are visible; amongst the later rig-and-furrow there is a patch of narrow cultivation rigs, possibly cord rig, measuring 1.3m between furrows.
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS, SMF), 18 July 1990.
There are possible traces of cord rig within the interior of the earthwork on the W shoulder of Broomhillbank Hill
Visited by RCAHMS (SPH), 13 February 1996.
Listed as fort, palisaded enclosures and cord rig.
RCAHMS 1997.
