Camps Knowe Wood

The fort at Camspwater was surveyed by RCAHMS in November 1980, having been inaccessible in 1970. The survey was undertaken at a scale of 1:400 by plane-table and self-reducing alidade. The plan was redrawn in ink on 19 August 1981 and published at a reduced scale (Stevenson 1985).

This fort occupies the summit of a promontory-like knoll in the recently felled Camps Knowe Wood. The north and north-east flanks of the knoll fall steeply in Casan Cleuch, but on the south and south-west the slopes are more gradual and, in consequence, the defences have been developed in greater depth on these sides.

The defences consist of a series of earth-and-stone ramparts accompanied by ditches and their lay-out suggests that they were constructed in two, if not three, stages. In the earliest phase the summit area (measuring 70m by 45m) was protected by twin ramparts and medial ditch on the south and southwest (I and IA on the plan) and by a single rampart on the north and north-east. At that stage its defences closely resembled those at Fallburn (no. 85), Arbory no. 79) and period 2 at Cow Castle (no. 83). Subsequently the defences were strengthened, particularly in the more vulnerable southerly flanks, by the addition of an extra rampart (II) which was built from material thrown up from an inner ditch. On the north-east this line of defence is now visible only as a slight scarp and it is likely that in this sector the rampart was replaced by a simple timber palisade. The outermost rampart (IIA) may have been constructed at the same time as Il, but because it is of a slightly different character and separated from II by a broad benn, it probably belongs to a slightly later period. On the south lIA consists of a rampart with an outer defensive ditch snd the remains of a counterscarp bank and an internal quarry-scoop. For some reason this rampart and ditch was not continued as far as the west entrance and, to the north of it, is only represented by a slight bank. The fort was approached by two entrances, set at either end of the strongest section of the defences, with the western example probably serving as the principal access point In the interior there are slight traces of at least four or five timber round-houses, but these are difficult to see under the vegetation that covers the site.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Clyde Estuary and Central Region’, (1985).

This fort is situated on a steep-sided hillock that rises from the foot of the NW flank of Fairburn Rig, overlooking the upper end of the Camps Water valley, now flooded for a reservoir. Roughly oval on plan, the fort measures 73m from N to S by 54m transversely within the innermost rampart, which can be traced round the summit of the hillock, variously forming a stony bank on the SW and NE, but reduced to a scarp around the SE and NW. On the easiest line of approach, from the S and SW, no fewer than five ramparts are visible, reducing to perhaps four on the steeper NW slope, and two where the ground falls away particularly sharply along the E flank. The precise sequence of construction of the ramparts is uncertain, but on plan at least it appears that the two inner ramparts on the SW are the latest, forming part of a coherent scheme in which they return and unite around the terminal of a medial ditch on the S side of the entrance on the W. The outer of the two apparently overlies the back of an earlier rampart further down the slope, which has been reduced to a scarp immediately outside its line, dropping into the bottom of an external ditch with a counterscarp bank. But while this earlier rampart with its ditch and counterscarp bank are replicated in the arrangement of the defences to the N of the entrance, the two innermost ramparts of the later scheme are not and there is but a single rampart to represent them, and this reduced to a scarp. Evidently the complexities in these arrangements will only be understood through excavation, but a fifth rampart lying a little further down the slope on the SW, with an internal quarry scoop and an external ditch, is likely to have been an addition to the outer defences. It peters out northwards short of the entrance on the W, though there are traces of a short segment of ditch with a counterscarp bank on the NW. In addition to the entrance on the W, in which there are traces of a worn hollow dropping down between the terminals of the ramparts, there is a second entrance on the SE; here the terminals of the innermost rampart turn inwards slightly to either side of the gap and there is evidence of a track approaching obliquely up the slope to expose the visitor's left side. Traces of at least five house platforms can be seen in the N half of the interior, but the ground has been so heavily disturbed by forestry operations there may well have been others.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 19 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3217