Saline Hill

NT 043 934. Earthwork, Saline Hill. Easter Cairn, the easternmost of the triple summits of Saline Hill, terminates in a small knoll whose S and E sides face level ground, and are only 22ft high, but whose other two sides merge with the main slopes of the hill and are steeply inclined – the W side being rocky and virtually precipitous. This knoll has been surrounded by a single bank to form a sub-oval enclosure measuring 200ft from E to W by 120ft from N to S. The bank, which has been constructed by terracing into the hill-slope and by piling the upcast on the outer margin, is still visible in a wasted condition on the E and S sides where it stands about 6ft above the base of the knoll. On the N side, however, it has been completely eroded, and only the quarry-terrace survives; while on the W landslips have destroyed both features. The entrance is situated at the E apex, and there are slight indications of a track (which may be of comparatively recent date) leading thence to the flat top of the knoll. Otherwise the interior is featureless. The work is presumably the ‘camp’ on Saline Hill referred to in the Statistical Account (x, footnote p.312).

Visited by RCAHMS (KAS) 7 May 1952.

NT09SW 4 0428 9335.

(Area: NT 0425 9331) The remains of a camp, as it is called, is still to be seen on Saline Hill.

(Name Book 1854).

NT 0428 9335 Around the summit of the part of Saline Hill, known as Easter Cairn, are traces of a fort. (Visible on RAF air photographs CPE/Scot/UK 309 5172-3). The principal feature is a terrace on the south with the course of a stone wall on its crest. This terrace varies from 1.5 - 2.0m in height. It lies a little way below the top of the hill. On the NW the fort is bounded by a sheer cliff, which merges to a steep slope on the north, gradually diminishing towards the east where it is quite gentle. On the west there appears to be an outer rampart with ditch between it and the terrace. The rampart flattened and much spread is only 0.5m in height and some 4.0m in breadth. On the east, the terrace merges with the natural slopes and eventually disappears. Here, the easiest accessible route, are faint traces of an entrance.

The interior of the fort is uneven, save for a small, fairly level, and oval shaped area on the summit, around which there is the very faint suggestion of another wall; but this was not confirmed. No trace of other defences were found.

Visited by OS (JD) 19 June 1953.

Iron Age Hill fort.

Information from R W Feachem (RCAHMS) 27 June 1953.

This site is noted in the ‘List of monuments discovered during the survey of marginal land (1951-5)’ (RCAHMS 1957, xiv-xviii).

Information from RCAHMS (GFG), 24 October 2012.

NT09SW 4 0428 9335.

The remains of a fort crown the summit of Easter Cairn Hill. The main circuit of defences comprise a single rampart set some way down the slope, but there are also traces of what may be an inner enclosure, defined by a low scarp around the summit itself. The scarp, which encloses an area measuring 20m from E to W by 19m transversely, may be largely natural, but its lip is broken by a gap on the ESE, corresponding to the position of the entrance through the rampart on the slope below. This rampart survives as a scarp, which is only lost on the steepest slopes on the NW. It measures 1.8m in maximum height and is accompanied by an external ditch and counterscarp bank when it crosses a narrow spur projecting from the hillside on the W; here there are also traces of a second bank with an external ditch lower down the slope. All these features end abruptly on the crest of the spur.

Visited by RCAHMS (SPH) August 1991.

This fort is situated high up on the Easter Cairn, which is the easternmost of the three summits that make up Saline Hill. Roughly oval on plan, it measures about 62m from ENE to WSW by 40m transversely (0.16ha) within a single rampart largely reduced to a scarp some 1.8m in height. On the crest of the hill on the W there are also traces of an external ditch with a counterscarp bank, while a little further down slope here an outer bank with an external ditch can also be seen. The entrance is on the E, where there are traces of a track leading up onto the flat summit within the interior and breaching the low scarp around its margin. The latter is probably largely natural, but it possibly hides the remains of an inner enclosure measuring internally about 20m from E to W by 19m transversely.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 17 August 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3179