Kailzie, Tor Hill
Fort (Prehistoric), House Platform (Prehistoric)
Site Name Kailzie, Tor Hill
Classification Fort (Prehistoric), House Platform (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 51270
Site Number NT23NE 4
NGR NT 2735 3877
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/51270
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Traquair
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Tweeddale
- Former County Peebles-shire
NT23NE 4 2735 3877.
(NT 2735 3877) Fort (NR)
OS 6" map (1965)
The remains of a multivallate fort are situated 600 yds NW of Kailzie Home Farm on the summit of Tor Hill (885' OD). The site has been extensively damaged by cultivation and dyke-building, and as a result only the innermost rampart (A) can now be traced for its entire circuit. It enclosed an area measuring 160' x 135' and has a clearly marked entrance on the SE, 14' in width. The rampart appears at best as a turf-covered stony bank 10' in thickness and 1' 6" in greatest height, but for the most part it is reduced to a slight scarp less than one foot high. Within the interior, a shallow circular depression, measuring 40' across, marks the site of a large timber house.
Ramparts B, C and D are reduced to fragmentary scarps except for a short length of bank on the SSE, about 13' in thickness and one foot in height, which probably belongs to rampart C. The continuation of this rampart is indicated on the S side of the hill by a slight swelling in the ground, and its approximate course is marked on the plan by a broken line. On the NE side the scarps range from 2' to 3' 6" in height, and a short stretch of external stone revetment is visible in rampart D. A narrrow groove-like depression, accompanied by what appears to be a very slight upcast bank on its outer margin, can be seen just inside the crest of the scarp of rampart C for a distance of 50'. Its purpose is not known.
RCAHMS 1967, visited 1959
As described. The course of rampart C is indicated on the S side by a crest line in a cornfield.
Revised at 25".
Visited by OS (RD) 7 June 1971
Note (15 October 2015 - 18 May 2016)
This fort is situated on the summit of Tor Hill, which rises up to the W of Kailzie. Its defences comprise two elements, namely an inner enclosure bounded by a single wall, and an outer enclosure with up to three ramparts. The inner enclosure measures internally about 49m from NE to SW by 41m transversely, and its wall has been reduced by robbing to a low stony bank to either side of the entrance on the SE, and elsewhere to a scarp; a single house-platform can be seen in the interior, traversed by a later stone dyke. The outer defences are fragmentary, having been obliterated on the steep NW flank of the hill and reduced to a single crest line in the field on the SW, but on the NE, which is also relatively steep, no fewer than three ramparts are visible, each reduced to a scarp and overlain by traces of cultivation rigs swinging round the contour. While it is not possible to trace out the overall disposition of these defences round the hill, they probably are not strictly concentric to the inner enclosure, and probably belong to a separate period of construction.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3641
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
