Dodburn Hill

(i) MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS: In the absence of excavation, over eighty earthworks in the county [Roxburgh] cannot by classified either because they do not conform to recognised types or because their plans are not sufficiently distinctive. A few of these, occupying commanding positions on hilltops or the crests of ridges, are unlikely to be later than the 11th century; such are Bonchester Hill (NT51SE 8), the group of earthworks on Whitcastle Hill (NT41SW 6), and five roughly D-shaped earthworks lying within a radius of two miles between the River Teviot and the Slitrig Water- Gray Hill 2 (NT40NE 13), Birny Knowe (NT40NE 12), Crom Rig (NT40NW 16), Dodburn (No.160, ii; NT40NE 7), and Pen Sike (NT40NE 8)- which are characterised by ramparts massive in proportion to their size. The majority, however, are situated on hillsides or in the bottoms of valleys, generally below the 800 ft contour, and are probably mediaeval. Most of these lower-lying structures, of which the outstanding examples are Timpendean (NT62SW 10), Iron Castle (NT61SW 7), and Scraesburgh (NT61NE 1), were evidently designed for habitation and presumably contained wooden buildings; but a few of the simpler earthworks such as Huntly Burn (No.51) may have been enclosures for stock.

RCAHMS 1956, 50

A succession of hilltop settlements and enclosures on Dodburn Hill includes a large roughly subrectangular earthwork that is evidently fortified, its defences comprising twin ramparts with a medial ditch. The ramparts have been severely reduced, nowhere standing more than 0.6m in height above the interior, but externally the inner uses the natural slope to present a scarp dropping up to 2.5m into the bottom of the surrounding rock-cut ditch, which is generally about 10m in breadth and 1.2m in external depth. The ramparts return and unite around the terminals of the ditch at the entrance on the NE. The interior, which measures about 81m from NE to SW by 64m transversely (0.46ha) is largely occupied by what is probably a late iron age settlement, forming a series of angular enclosures immediately within the entrance, one of which contains the footing of a hut-circle. At the SW end there are traces of two more scooped courts, identified on the plan drawn up in 1933 by RCAHMS investigators (1956, 113, no.160, fig 150) as the NE end of an earlier enclosure, the perimeter of which lies mainly outside the defences to the SE. Subsequent aerial photography reveals that they misinterpreted one side of a scooped court and a possible round-house immediately outside the defences as the remains of the earlier perimeter, which has been severely reduced by the cultivation of rigs along this flank. Oval on plan, this earlier enclosure occupies the SW shoulder of the elongated summit area, following the crest of the slightly steeper slopes on the NW and SW, and measures internally at least 110m in length from NE to SW by 72m transversely (0.75ha) within a bank some 3m in thickness by 0.6m in height, with an external ditch and on the SW possibly a low counterscarp bank; with the later fortified settlement occupying its NE end, however, it may measure as much as 170m in length, in which case its interior may have extended to as much as 1.4ha.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 19 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3246

Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.

Information from Scottish Borders Council