Archaeology Notes

Event ID 715895

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/715895

NT44NE 3 4540 4567.

(NT 4542 4567) Fort (NR)

OS 6" map (1971)

This fort appears to have been an irregular oval on plan, measuring 316ft NE-SW by 236ft internally. It seems to have been defended by two stone walls of which only fragments remain. The inner wall is 15ft wide and between 1 1/2ft and 9ft high. There are traces of several enclosures in the interior.

Several items from this fort were exhibited to the members of the Society in 1912 by Mr A Sulley, Briarbank, Galashiels. They comprised a flat axe mould of sandstone, found in one of the pits, a piece of slate with incised lines, a piece of rough clay pottery showing potter's wheel marks, a piece of animal bone cut as a saw, found in the inner ditch, a cast of a perforated and decorated stone, probably an amulet, and two decorated whorls.

RCAHMS 1929, visited 1913; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1912

The remains of this fort are represented by the mutilated remains of two ramparts on the S and E sides and the probable remains of the inner face of the inner rampart on the NW side. The outer rampart exists as a mere scarp 0.5m in average height; the inner, again existing as a scarp mainly, has a maximum height of 1.4m on the SE arc, but on the SW arc the remains are very slight, bearing signs of recent disturbances. The remains are too fragmentary to give accurate overall dimensions. Within the fort are several enclosures, small scoops and fragments of old banks, probably of more recent origin. The enclosures are generally formed by low spread banks of earth and stone; the best preserved bank has a width of 5.0m and a height of 0.6m.

Revised at 25".

Visited by OS (WDJ) 22 December 1964