Craigie Hill
Fort (Period Unassigned), Hut Circle(S) (Prehistoric)
Site Name Craigie Hill
Classification Fort (Period Unassigned), Hut Circle(S) (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 50391
Site Number NT17NE 12
NGR NT 1538 7580
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/50391
- Council Edinburgh, City Of
- Parish Dalmeny
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District City Of Edinburgh
- Former County West Lothian
NT17NE 12 1538 7580.
(NT 1538 7580) Fort (NR)
OS 6" map (1968)
The fort walled settlement (R W Feachem 1963) on Craigie Hill occupies the summit of a steep-sided ridge and measures 750' x 150' internally. The E side relies on its natural defensive position, but along the W are the remains of three stone walls, and in the interior is a series of hut platforms varying from 20' to 28' in diameter. (Simpson excavated to examine the construction of the walls, and also uncovered the stone walls of a number of hut circles).
A secondary stone-walled fort, measuring internally 148' x 50', is at the N end, overlying the three walls of the earlier work. This is almost identical to that at Dalmahoy Hill (NT16NW 1, which is considered to be of Dark Age date).
J N G Ritchie and A Ritchie 1972; R W Feachem 1963; 1965; RCAHMS 1929, visited 1926; J Y Simpson 1868
Generally as described.
Visited by OS (SFS) 16 August 1974
Field Visit (19 October 1952)
Fort, Craigie Hill
The three lines of defence on the W side are similar in construction, consisting of stone walls 5 ft to 7 ft in thickness. On the S side of the natural gully on the northern end of the site there is an additional outer wall, not shown on the [1929] plan, which is well preserved at one point. In this last case the wall-stones are built directly on to the natural rock.
The ‘citadel’ at the northern end of the site is bounded by a stone wall about 9ft in thickness. It is impossible to say, from superficial examination, whether or not this ‘citadel’ is coeval with the defences already described, but it seems probable that it is in fact of later date. The huts indicated on the plan all have stone walls, and again there is no evidence to show their chronological relationship to the defences. But it seems reasonable to assume that they are later in date than the triple walls, and that the sequence of structures here corresponds to that at Dunearn Hill, Burntisland [NT28NW 8].
Visited by RCAHMS (KAS) 19 October 1952
Note (4 November 2015 - 20 October 2016)
This fort occupies the southern end of the ridge known as Craigie Hill, which rises abruptly from the surrounding countryside and indeed is girt with cliffs all along its E flank. Clothed in dense gorse and trees, its defences are comprise three ramparts, each reduced to a scarp, which can be traced intermittently along the W flank of the hill, from the escarpment where the public road to Kirkliston cuts through a cleft in the southern end of the ridge, to another transverse gully on the N. The elongated interior measures some 230m from NNE to SSW by 45m transversely (1ha) and the plan drawn up in 1926 by RCAHMS investigators shows the positions of seven stone-founded round-houses. They also noted an entrance towards the southern end of the WNW side, where a track obliquely mounts the slope to expose the visitor's left side, and possibly a second towards the northern end. The NNE end of the interior was subsequently adapted to form an oval enclosure measuring 45m from E to W by 27m transversely within a stony bank. At the behest of J Y Simpson excavations were carried out in the 1860s across the ramparts and in several of the round-houses; the ramparts were found to be 'rude cyclopic wall[s] of uncut stones' (Simpson 1866, 45).
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 20 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3700
