Archaeology Notes

Event ID 721230

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/721230

NT76NE 10 NT 79117 67413

(NT 7911 6741) Fort (NR) (Site of)

OS 6"map, Berwickshire, 2nd ed., (1908).

Fort, Big Chesters: This oval fort, situated at a height of 610ft OD, has been surrounded by a single rampart, traceable all round except on the W, enclosing an area measuring some 320ft by 298ft.

RCAHMS 1915, visited 1911.

The site of this earthwork is now represented only by a level area, about 100m in diameter, on a hill-top. The course of the rampart, which is visible on RAF air photographs 106G Scot/UK11: 5020-1, can be traced by the growth of nettles in the cultivated field S of the dyke.

Visited by OS(JFC) 27 October 1954.

The vague outline of this earthwork can be seen as a crest line to the N of the field wall; there is little indication of it S of the wall. The interior of the feature N of the wall is mutilated and covered with stones cleared from the field.

Visited by OS(WDJ) 27 April 1966.

Little of this fort is visible. Cropmarks (RCAHMS flown 1976, 1979), reveal that it measures about 90m by 75m within a ditch up to 5m broad, and there are upturned entrances on the NE and SE respectively. The interior contains a ditched enclosure, probably a settlement, measuring about 50m by 40m internally. An area of at least 6 ha around the fort has been partly enclosed by an irregular earthwork shown as a linear cropmark.

RCAHMS 1980, visited 1979.

Previously described as fort, settlement and earthwork, and as fort and linear earthwork.