Camp Knowe
Cairnfield (Period Unknown), Quarry (Post Medieval), Settlement (Iron Age)
Site Name Camp Knowe
Classification Cairnfield (Period Unknown), Quarry (Post Medieval), Settlement (Iron Age)
Alternative Name(s) Coatsgate Quarry; Chapel Hill; Camp Knowe, Moffat
Canmore ID 48356
Site Number NT00NE 7
NGR NT 0660 0559
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/48356
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Kirkpatrick-juxta
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Annandale And Eskdale
- Former County Dumfries-shire
NT00NE 7 0660 0559
(NT 0660 0559) Camp Knowe (NAT)
OS 6" map, (1957).
A natural outcrop of rock, artificially adapted, with a 14' wide outer trench on the E and S sides, on the summit of Chapel Hill, has many resemblances to a 'mote'. If a mote, there can never have been a base court. In the centre is a considerable hollow, which has in modern times been drained towards the NE, where an entrance may have been. The path shown on the illustration is a sheep track.
'The fact that its summit does not appear to have been levelled has led the Commissioners to describe the structure as 'Fort', a description fortified by its name - Camp Knowe' (RCAHMS 1920)
R C Reid 1927
Situated in pasture land Camp Knowe is a natural rocky knoll which has been artificially scarped with an outer earth-and-stone rampart encircling the E and S sides. In the W the rampart merges into the slope to form a terrace which runs to the base of the knoll in the N. There is no trace of the rampart in this sector and it has either been destroyed by cultivation or, most probably, was never constructed. The summit measures 50.0m N-S by 36.0m and has been quarried in the centre. There is no definite indication of an entrance although it may have been in the NE where there is evidence of further mutilation.
The remains have no affinity with a motte as suggested by Reid, but are more indicative of a fort.
Resurveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (I A) 27 September 1973
No change to previous field report.
Surveyed at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (T R G) 12 September 1978.
Fort [NR]
OS 1:10,000 map, 1982.
Field Visit (14 May 1990)
NT 0660 0559 NT00NE 7
The remains of this settlement are situated on a steep-sided natural hillock, some 5m high, which lies on the watershed between the Evan and Annan Waters. Irregularly-shaped on plan, it measures about 41m from NNE to SSW by 29.3m transeversely within a wall which has been reduced to a grass-grown stony bank (up to 1.1m thick and 0.3m high on the E where it is best preserved and where inner facing-stones are visible) or a scarp. At the base of the knoll on the E and S, there is a shallow ditch (up to 2.8m broad) and an external earth-and-stone bank (3m thick and up to 1.6m high). Three courses of external revetment, composed of small angular stones are visible in this bank on the W.
The entrance was probably on the NE, from which direction a quarry has been driven into the centre of the interior. The interior is otherwise featureless.
A small cairn is situated a short distance to the S of the fort. At least ten more (the largest of them measuring 6.4m in diameter) lie in the saddle to the N and NW (NT 065 057).
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS), 14 May 1990.
Listed as cairnfield and fort at 'Camp Knowe, Moffat'.
RCAHMS 1997.
Desk Based Assessment (1 October 2010 - 7 October 2010)
In October 2010 Archaeological Research Services Ltd were commissioned by Tarmac Ltd to undertake an archaeological desk-based assessment for Coatsgate Quarry, Moffat, Dumfries and Galloway. The work was undertaken as part of three small planning permissions and a ROMPS review for the quarry, in order to assess the archaeological and historic significance of the site and the potential for impacts on the historic environment. The relevant archives were consulted and documentary, pictoral and cartographic evidence were studied. Forty-eight heritage assets were identified in a buffer around the proposed development area including five Scheduled Monuments, five Listed Buildings and a further eleven sites deemed to be of regional/local significance according to the HER. These included Bronze Age, Iron Age, Romano-British and early Medieval enclosures along with later medieval farmsteads. The impact on all but one of these sites is considered to be negligible or non-existent. However, the site of Camp Knowe, an Iron Age settlement and cairnfield of Regional/Local significance will be both directly impacted upon and have a detrimental impact on its setting, due to the proposed development. Any future extraction in this area of the quarry will need to be accompanied by an appropriate scheme of archaeological recording and appropriate measures to reduce, or offset, the impact of the quarry on the setting of the remaining upstanding features.
Information from OASIS ID: archaeol5-102148 (B Johnson) 2010
