Archaeology Notes

Event ID 711286

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/711286

NT24NW 4 2480 4595.

(NT 2480 4595) Milkieston Rings (NAT) Fort (NR)

OS 6" map (1966)

On the summit of Milkieston Hill, a broad spur which projects NW from Cavarra Hill, there are the complex remains of a fort known as Milkieston Rings. Although it commands a wide sweep of the Eddleston Water from a height of 500' above it, the site does not possess any great natural strength: on the SE the ground rises gently away from it towards Cavarra Hill, while on the other three sides the flanks of the spur are only moderately inclined.

The fort defences clearly represent more than one period of construction, but the remains are difficult to interpret in detail owing to later disturbance of the site caused by quarrying and stone-robbing. At least three successive defensive systems can, however, be distinguished, two of which appear to be unfinished. In the first period it seems probable that the fort was a bivallate structure defended by the stone walls marked IA and IB on the plan.

Internally this fort measures about 160' by 120', and, although it is so severely mutilated that its original appearance is difficult to visualise, it should perhaps be classed with such forts as Black Meldon (NT24SW 3) and Cardrona (NT33NW 3). Both the walls are now reduced to low stony banks, which are spread to a width of as much as 30' in places, or to mere scarps, and no facings are visible at any point. There are two entrance, in the E and SW sides respectively, both of which could be original, although the SW entrance through the inner wall has been used in comparatively recent times as a means of access to a quarry. The quarry has wrecked almost a quarter of the interior of the fort, but in the remaining area there can be seen three platforms for timber houses, one of which abuts wall IA and is bounded on the other sides by a slight bank.

Subsequently, the refortification of the site was begun by the construction, on the N half, of a new series of defences, consisting of two pairs of ramparts (IIA-B and IIC-D): each pair of ramparts encloses a ditch, but no ditch appears to have been dug in the broad space between IIB and IIC. The ramparts seem to have been formed simply of upcast from their respective ditches and exhibit no trace of stonework. Where best preserved, the ditches are about 6' in depth while the ramparts stand to a maximum height of 4' above the unexcavated ground. These earthwork defences are clearly later than wall IB since the latter is overlaid by rampart IIA at one point, and it seems equally evident that they were never finished. At the W end the pairs of ramparts and the two ditches return and unite as though on one side of an entrances. But there is no sign of the opposite side of the entrance, while on the NE the system breaks off abruptly, the ends of the ramparts being left open at the point where the work ceased.

At a later date the work of re-fortification was apparently resumed, a third series of defences, designed to link up with those of the second period, being constructed round the S half of the original fort. This new system in its turn does not seem to have been completed. On the S, it consists of three ramparts (IIIA-C) with two intervening ditches, but, although the inner and outer ramparts continue round the W side to link up with the second period ramparts IIA and IID, the medial rampart dies away a few yards beyond an entrance in the SW side and does not appear to have been continiued beyond that point. Similarly on the E, the triple ramparts have apparently not been completed N of another entrance-gap. A wasted stretch of rampart which links with the inner ditch of the second period defences is probably a continuation of IIIA; but the medial rampart (IIIB) is again absent, while the outer rampart and ditch fade out on as comparatively steep slope, leaving a gap of some 50' between themselves and the second period defences. The two entrances also have an unfinished appearance, the wide gaps in the outer ditch contrasting sharply with the narrow gaps left in the inner and medial ramparts.

To the NW of the fort, a linear earthwork crosses the hillside in a straight line from ENE-WSW, approching to within 65' of the defences at its nearest point. It consists of a ditch measuring 15' wide by 3' deep, with a low bank on the lip nearest the fort and intermittent traces of another on the counterscarp. The ENE of the earthwork has been obliterated by cultivation. It seems reasonable to conclude that this is contemporary with the fort. (This earthwork has been re-numbered as NT24NW 35).

RCAHMS 1967, visited 1959

Whilst generally as described, the remains of the fort on Milkieston Hill appear to consist of only two constructional phases.

Phase 1 consists of two ramparts (IA and IB), together with a third, the W and NE portions of IIIA. This rampart is also preserved as a slight bank in the SE between IIIA and IIIB.

Phase 2 is incomplete but its ultimate form is clear in the N where it consits of two pairs of ramparts each with a medial ditch, IIA and IIB,and IIC and IID. Quarrying has destroyed the latter pair in the NE but their course can be traced until in the SE they run into IIIB and IIIC. Banks IIA and IIB cannot be traced in either the W or E, but in the S the bank IIIA on the plan clearly represents the remains of IIB. The linear earthwork to the N is as described and clearly provides an additional defence on the weakest approach to the fort.

Resurveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (JP) 23 July 1971

Photographed by the RCAHMS in 1980.