Castle Hill, Crawford

NS92SW 17 9355 2188

When visited in 1959, this fort was in similar condition to that described by RCAHMS.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 20 July 1959

RCAHMS surveyed this site by plane-table on 11 August 1961 at a scale of 1mm:1ft during a survey of marginal land. The resultant plan was checked in 1975 before it was redrawn in ink and published at a reduced size in the County Inventory of Lanarkshire (RCAHMS 1978, Figure 52).

NS 935 218. A fort occupies the summit of a knoll (275m OD) which is isolated from Castle Hill by broad natural gullies to the N and S. It measures 39m by 20m within what has been a substantial wall, now reduced to a low stony bank not more than 1.0m high, interrupted for an entrance on the W. The sloping interior contains three crescentic scarps which probably indicate the sites of houses.

An attempt has been made to provide additional protection by drawing a rampart round the base of the knoll. On the S it appears as a low, stony bank, but elsewhere it is represented by a mere scarp in which a few stones belonging to an outer revetment can be seen on the E. On the NE and S the natural gullies have been artificially deepened to form a continuous ditch, now largely silted up on the E, where it crosses the spine of the ridge. There are two wide gaps in the rampart, on the W and SW respectively, in the former of which the entrance was probably situated; the latter is unlikely to have been an entrance as it leads only to the very steep SW flank of the knoll. The excessive width of both gaps, and the meagre traces of the rampart on the W, suggest that the rampart may never have been completed.

(See also NS92SE 34).

RCAHMS 1978, visited September 1975

NS92SW 17 93550 21880

(NS 9355 2187) Ancient Earthwork (NAT)

OS 6" map (1957).

See also NS92SE 34.

A fort, generally as described by RCAHMS, although the existence of an unfinished rampart around the W and SW sides could not be confirmed. Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (JRL) 14 August 1978.

Detailed survey of several sites in the area prior to the M74 motorway.

This small fortification occupies a steep-sided hillock formed between deep natural gullies on the SW flank of Castle Hill. Oval on plan, it measures 39m from E to W by 20m transversely (0.06ha) within a thick wall reduced to a band of rubble extending along the lip of the hillock. The entrance is on the W, at the lower end of the interior, which drops quite steeply and contains evidence of at least three house platforms. The natural strength of the location has been further enhanced by the digging of a ditch into the bottom of the gullies at the foot of the hillock on the S and NE to create an outwork with a stone revetted rampart; the latter can be traced as a low scarp around the N and W, its stature and two broad gaps contributing to the suggestion by RCAHMS investigators that it was perhaps unfinished.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC1671