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Corsehope Rings, Mid Hill
Cord Rig (Prehistoric), Cultivation Remains (Period Unassigned), Fort (Prehistoric), Palisaded Settlement (Prehistoric), Ring Ditch House(S) (Prehistoric)
Site Name Corsehope Rings, Mid Hill
Classification Cord Rig (Prehistoric), Cultivation Remains (Period Unassigned), Fort (Prehistoric), Palisaded Settlement (Prehistoric), Ring Ditch House(S) (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 53304
Site Number NT35SE 6
NGR NT 39250 51900
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/53304
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Heriot
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Ettrick And Lauderdale
- Former County Midlothian
NT35SE 6 39250 51900
(NT 3925 5190) Corsehope Rings (NAT)
Fort (NR)
OS 6" map (1964)
Corsehope Rings, Fort: This fort, occupying the summit of Mid Hill (1323ft OD), has four lines of defence, each consisting of a slight rampart with an intermittent external ditch. Together they form a band at least 100ft broad, enclosing an area measuring 420ft NE-SW by 270ft transversely. Three entrances, all of which may be original, break through the defences but the NE one differs from the others in being oblique. The interior has been ploughed but it is still possible to distinguish over twenty ring-ditch house sites on the surface.
The slight nature of the ramparts, contrasted with their length, has given rise to the conjecture that they may have held palisades.
RCAHMS 1929, visited 1913; R B K Stevenson 1951; R W Feachem 1963.
Corsehope Rings, a fort as described and planned, except that the sites of twelve timber houses only can now be traced.
Resurveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (RD) 17 February 1970
Photographed by the RCAHMS in 1980.
(Undated) information in NMRS.
Field Visit (15 July 1913)
Fort, Corsehope Rings, Mid Hill.
Some 700 yards south-east. of Borthwick Hall, on the grassy summit of Mid Hill, at an elevation of 1300 feet above sea-level, is a fine fort, oval in outline, surrounded by concentric ramparts of earth. Towards the ends the approach is easy, but on the north-western and south-eastern flanks the ground falls in a steep descent. The main axis runs north-east and south-west, and the enceinte measures some 420 feet in length by 268 feet at most in breadth. Four concentric ramparts surround the fort, and there has been a fifth on the north-western flank, where the distance between their crests, measuring from the inner rampart, is 20 feet, 25 feet, 32 feet, and 15 feet respectively. The crest of the inner rampart at the same place is 12 feet higher than the base of the outer one; on the opposite flank the corresponding rise is 17 feet at one point. A section through the defences on the northwestern side shows the inner rampart to be 15 feet wide and to rise 2 feet above the interior and 3 feet above the bottom of a ditch outside, which is 9 feet wide and 1 foot deep on the counterscarp. A platform, 8 feet wide, lies between the ditch and the second rampart, which is 15 feet broad at base, 2 feet in height above the platform, and 4 ½ feet above a ditch outside measuring 6 feet in width and 1 foot in depth on the counterscarp. A similar platform is interposed between the second ditch and the third rampart, which is 13 feet broad and rises 2 feet on the inside and 5 feet above a third ditch, 6 feet wide and 1 ½ feet deep on the counterscarp. Another platform 12 feet wide lies between this last ditch and the fourth rampart, which, rising 1 foot on the inside and 4 feet on the outside, is 10 feet in breadth at the base, while some6 feet beyond are indications of the fifth rampart. Towards the east, on the opposite flank, the ditch and platform appear only between the third and fourth ramparts and for a short length between the second and third.
There are three entrances to the fort, two through the south-western and north-eastern ends and one slightly east. of the centre of the south-eastern flank. The south-western entrance, some 14 feet broad, is carried almost straight through the defences, but the other two are rather more elaborate. The south-eastern entrance,18 feet broad, curves so that the opening in one rampart is partly covered by the next inner rampart. The north-eastern entrance, 12 to15 feet wide, is even more complicated. It cuts obliquely through the defences, while the second rampart from the interior, on both sides of the entrance, and the outer rampart on the northern side only of the entrance re curve outwards. Between the second and third ramparts two slight ramparts, 4 feet broad, 1 foot high and 4 feet apart, run southwards from the entrance, the outer for a distance of some 20 yards and the inner for some 30 yards. In the interior of the fort are faint traces of a number of dug-out hollows of indeterminate character. These are not shown on the plan.
RCAHMS 1929, visited 15 July 1913.
OS map: xxi S.W.
Field Visit (10 June 1954)
Fort, Corsehope Rings, Mid Hill.
The Inventory description of the defences is adequate. The ramparts are all of dump construction and individually never presented much of an obstacle, although they were presumably topped with palisading. The ditches are simply external quarry pits and in many cases do not occupy the whole of the space between the ramparts.
About a dozen huts are visible, apparently coeval with the visible defences or with an earlier palisade following the same circuit. They are of ring-ditch rather than ring-groove type, and measure some 35ft to 40ft over the ditch which is 4ft to 5ft in width. The huts have been grafted on to the Inventory Plan in P.S.A.S. lxxxiii, 2.
Visited by RCAHMS (KAS), 10 June 1954.
OS map: xxi SW
Note (11 November 2015 - 25 October 2016)
Corsehope Rings crown the summit of Mid Hill, which forms part of a long ridge between the Heriot Water on the NW and the Corsehope Burn on the SE. Oval on plan, the fort measures 128m from NE to SW by 81m transversely within a remarkable belt of defences between 30m and 40m deep. Roughly concentric, the belt comprises at least four relatively slight ramparts accompanied by shallow external ditches, the gaps between them opening up a little at both ends to increase the depth of the defences adjacent to the axial entrances on the NE and SW respectively, but what is truly remarkable are the traces of palisade trenches cut along the crest of each rampart. These almost certainly represent a refurbishment phase after the rampart cores had consolidated, and at the SW entrance the relationship is clearly demonstrated by the way the palisade trench on the outermost rampart dismounts on the S side of the entrance to return around the terminal of the ditch and cut obliquely across the low counterscarp bank that is visible in this sector. At this same entrance, a length of trench surviving on the S side of the entrance also links the palisades on the innermost and second ramparts, evidently representing part of a timber-lined passage leading into the interior. The ramparts and palisades appear to represent two coherent schemes for defence in depth, but between the second and third ramparts on the S side of the NE entrance there are traces of other low banks, suggesting that the evolution of the defences may yet be more complex, while at the SW end of the interior there are traces of what may be two successive palisade trenches incorporating the line of the inner rampart into the perimeter of later settlement enclosures. Within these enclosures there are at least three substantial ring-ditch house, and traces of at least fourteen others can be seen throughout the rest of the interior of the fort, despite an episode of shallow cultivation in the post-medieval period; two of the round-houses, lying immediately inside a third entrance that pierces the defences on the SE, are encircled by twin ring-grooves. The traces of later cultivation ride over what is probably a post-medieval dyke cutting obliquely across the interior in a shallow arc from E to W, and at some stage the whole fort was enclosed by a turf dyke, traces of which can be seen outside the defences in most sectors; a deep quarry has also been cut across the defences on the S.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 25 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3724
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
