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Upper Kidston
Fort (Prehistoric), House Platform(S) (Prehistoric), Settlement (Prehistoric)
Site Name Upper Kidston
Classification Fort (Prehistoric), House Platform(S) (Prehistoric), Settlement (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 51538
Site Number NT24SW 21
NGR NT 2238 4322
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/51538
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Peebles
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Tweeddale
- Former County Peebles-shire
NT24SW 21 2238 4322 and 2238 4328.
(NT 2238 4328) Settlement (NR)
(NT 2238 4322) Fort (NR)
OS 6" map (1965)
Fort and enclosures, Upper Kidston. On the crest of a spur there is a slight knoll which is occupied by a fort measuring 230' by 190' within a single rampart (A). The entrance to the fort is on the NW, and for some 50 yards to the N of it the rampart still survives in the form of a slight bank a few inches high. Elsewhere, however, it has been completely eroded and its course is only traceable by a terrace (T) which has been cut into the knoll to accommodate it. The body of the rampart was presumably composed of rubble derived from this terrace. The interior of the fort, which rises to a height of as much as 27' above the terrace, contains three house-platforms, the largest measuring 35' across. A rock-cut pit of unknown date and purpose, measuring one foot in depth and 6' in diameter, is situated a few feet SE of the highest part of the interior.
A ditch (B), 200' long, 12' wide and one foot deep at the present time, has been drawn across the spur 200' N of the fort to cover the easy approach from that direction. The ditch originally had a bank on the side nearest the fort, but only the slightest traces of this have survived the encroachment of rig-and-furrow ploughing, which has also curtailed the ditch at either end. The gap in the middle of the remaining sector of the ditch is probably original. Another ditch (C), 300' long, 20' wide and 2' deep, situated in marshy ground W of the fort, may have been intended to impede approach from the hillside beyond.
The space between the fort and the ditches is occupied by several shallow scooped courts and enclosures of irregular shape, bounded by low earthen banks. They are patently later than the fort, since one of the enclosures impinges upon the terrace (T), but their date is unknown. (Information from R W Feachem 1958, 79)
RCAHMS 1967, visited 1958
Fort as described. The scooped courts and enclosures probably represent a settlement.
Visited by OS (JLD) 7 May 1962 and (BS) 27 September 1974
Reference (1957)
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.
Note (21 October 2015 - 20 October 2016)
This fort or fortified settlement occupies a hillock on the NE flank of the White Meldon immediately above the improved fields of Upper Kidston. A rounded triangle on plan, it measures 70m from N to S by 58m transversely within a single rampart, which has been so heavily robbed that little more than a terrace cut back into the rock marks its course. RCAHMS investigators in 1958 suggested that this terrace had been cut to 'accommodate' the rampart, but it is essentially an internal quarry to provide the materials for its construction. The rocky interior rises to the summit of the hillock and contains traces of three house platforms, two cut at the back of the terrace on the N, and one on the E; the only other feature visible within the interior is a shallow rock-cut pit. The entrance is on the NW in the only sector where the rampart still forms a low mound. On the E the line of the rampart is overlain by one of a series of yards and courts that sprawl across the N flank of the hillock; presumably a settlement, its date is unknown. The investigators suggested that outlying linear banks and ditches on the N and W respectively may have provided additional protection, but in truth their dates and purposes are completely unknown.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 20 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3676
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
