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Cocklaw Hill
Enclosure (Period Unassigned), Fort (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Cocklaw Hill
Classification Enclosure (Period Unassigned), Fort (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 48981
Site Number NT04SW 3
NGR NT 0421 4284
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/48981
- Council South Lanarkshire
- Parish Walston
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Clydesdale
- Former County Lanarkshire
NT04SW 3 0421 4284.
(NT 0421 4284) Fort (NR)
OS 1:10000 map (1980)
Fort and Enclosure, Cocklaw Hill: The wasted remains of a fort and an enclosure are situated on the level summit of Cocklaw Hill (305m OD). Oval on plan, the fort measures 87m by 69m internally and has been defended by double ramparts and a medial ditch. On the S, where they are best preserved, the inner rampart measures up to 5.8m in thickness at the base and 0.6m in height, while the outer rampart is 4.6m thick and now not more than 0.3m high. Former cultivation and tree-planting have reduced the W sectors of both ramparts to mere scarps and have entirely removed the outer rampart on the N and E. Of the three breaks in the defences, the two that are situated on the NE and SW respectively appear to represent original entrances, but the one on the N is probably secondary. The interior is featureless.
The enclosure was built over the levelled outer rampart of the fort on the N. It was bounded partly by the inner rampart and partly by a bank which is now in a fragmentary condition, being reduced to a scarp on the W and completely obliterated on the E. The gap in the N side of the inner rampart of the fort was probably created at this time to give access to the enclosure.
RCAHMS 1978, visited 1969; D Christison 1890; G V Irving 1855
As described by the RCAHMS. The interior, though disturbed by quarrying and forestry activity indicates doubtful traces of timber houses. Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (JP) 16 August 1971
Field Visit (1959)
Recorded as part of the Marginal Land Survey.
Note (27 July 2015 - 18 October 2016)
This fort is situated on the W shoulder of Cocklaw Hill, where the ground falls away steeply to the W. Roughly oval on plan, it measures 87m from NE to SW by 69m transversely (0.45ha) within a rampart up to 5.8m in thickness by 0.6m in height, which on the SE at least is probably accompanied by an external ditch. An outer rampart can be traced around the S and W flanks, but, as with the inner, on the W it has been reduced by cultivation and an old shelter belt to no more than a stony scarp. Apparently concentric around these flanks, with returns to unite with the inner rampart to either side of an entrance on the SW, the two ramparts may be contemporary, but on the N the outer diverges from this concentric line and has been incorporated into a later enclosure exploiting the gap between them; this divergent course possibly indicates that the outer belongs originally to a larger enclosure on the hill top, measuring as much as 115m from N to S by 85m transversely (0.77ha), though it may be equally be an addition to create an outer annexe on the N. A second entrance in the inner rampart is roughly opposed to the SW entrance on the NE, but there is also a gap opening into the later enclosure on the N, though this may be secondary. The enclosure on the N is presumably the remains of a small late Iron Age homestead.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3227
