White Meldon

The fort crowning the summit of the White Meldon is the largest in the upper reaches of the Tweed valley, displaying up to four lines of enclosure, the inner two of which are incomplete circuits that hint at a complex sequence in which the fort has expanded in a series of stages, though the precise sequence is unknown. The third rampart, a tumbled wall about 3.5m in thickness, is the only continuous line of defence visible today, enclosing an area measuring 260m from N to S by 167m transversely (2.9ha), within which there are traces of the stances of at least twenty-nine timber round-houses, mainly represented by shallow ring-grooves and in a few cases enclosing well-defined platforms; aerial photography and fieldwork under a range of conditions suggests there are many more round-houses hidden in the tussocky clumps of grass that clothe large areas of the interior. There are several gaps in the line of this wall, but only those on the NNE and SSW are certainly entrances; at the former the terminals of the inner rampart are staggered to expose the visitor's right side, while the latter is set in the W re-entrant formed where the S end of the fort loops out round the S spur, again exposing the visitor's right side. The second rampart, not much more than a stony scarp lying immediately up slope from the third along the E flank, probably pursued much the same course elsewhere, but the projected course of the innermost, which is no more than a band of grass-grown rubble visible on the SSE, would have formed a considerably smaller enclosure. The only place where there is any clear stratigraphy in the defences, is on the S, where a short isolated length of rampart cuts across the salient in the line of the third rampart on the S spur. This is clearly part of an earlier circuit, but whether it belongs to the second rampart, as proposed by the RCAHMS investigators in 1962, or the outermost fourth circuit visible on the E side of the fort is unknown. And while the RCAHMS investigators opted for a simple expanding sequence as the most likely explanation, in which this outermost rampart represented the fort at its maximum extent (3.6ha), with its defences enhanced by a ditch at the S extremity and an outer rampart and ditch at the N extremity, it is equally possible it formed an earlier enclosure (3.4ha) eccentrically underlying the third circuit. This outermost rampart, which the investigators also considered possibly unfinished, has several gaps along its line, but only that on the NNE is certainly an entrance, and is approached externally by a shallow worn hollow. The summit of the hill is surmounted by an OS triangulation station, but the subsidiary summit to its W has provided the site for a large round cairn, while the gully between them has been tailored in the post-medieval period to create a sheepfold.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3674

Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.

Information from Scottish Borders Council