Knowe Kniffling
Fort (Prehistoric)
Site Name Knowe Kniffling
Classification Fort (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 48735
Site Number NT03SE 5
NGR NT 0816 3323
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/48735
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Broughton, Glenholm And Kilbucho
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Tweeddale
- Former County Peebles-shire
NT03SE 5 0816 3323.
(NT 0816 3323) Fort (NR)
OS 6" map, (1967).
On the summit of Knowe Kniffling there are the slight remains of a fort measuring internally 180ft by 140ft.
The defences have suffered severely from stone robbing and have also been mutilated by former cultivation of the E flank of the hill. The innermost defence is a wall (A on RCAHMS 1967 plan, fig.113) which now consists only of a thin scatter of stones some 8ft to 10ft in breadth; no facing stones can be discerned. The entrance is indicated by a gap about 6ft wide in the ENE side. The next line of defence (B) which was also probably a wall, lies at a fairly constant distance from A. For the most part it is represented only by a scarp, which is largely natural, but on the ENE it survives as a very low, stony mound which includes an entrance 8ft in width, corresponding to the one in A.
A third line of defence (C) comprises only a short stretch of scarp and a low stony bank; the gap between the two probably indicates the position of the original entrance. The outermost line (D) is reduced to a mere crest-line except on the NE where it appears as a slight mound accompanied by an internal quarry-ditch.
While it is difficult to interpret such tenuous remains, it is possible that C and D represent a primary fort which was superseded by a somewhat smaller work defined by A and B.
RCAHMS 1967, visited 1957.
The grass-covered remains of a stone-walled fort as described. The fort is best preserved in the NE.
Visited by OS(WDJ) 6 March 1964 and (BS) 25 November 1974.
Note (6 October 2015 - 20 October 2016)
This fort occupies a local summit known as Knowe Kniffling on the spur descending N from Common Law, from which the ground falls away steeply on all sides except the saddle on the SSE. Oval on plan, the defences comprise no fewer than four ramparts, but these probably represent two separate schemes of defence, of which the inner two belong to the later. Oval on plan, this latter enclosure measures about 55m from NE to SW by 42m transversely within a stone rampart that has been reduced by robbing to little more than a thin scatter of stones; its outer rampart has fared slightly better, forming a low bank to either side of the entrance on the NE but elsewhere reduced to a scarp. This outer rampart, however, appears to overlie the lines of the two outer ramparts, which otherwise swing round the NE flank on a wider arc, though the inner of them cuts back rather more sharply on the E side to flank the entrance at the NE end. While evidently larger than the inner enclosure, perhaps enclosing in excess of 0.3ha, it would be misleading to suggest that the configuration of these outer ramparts is fully understood; indeed the RCAHMS plan drawn up in 1957, which traces the lip of the counterscarp of the ditch accompanying the outermost rampart round the circuit in a break of slope appears to have conflated elements of both the third and fourth ramparts on the E. The interior of the fort is featureless.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 20 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3560
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
