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Todshaw Hill
Fort (Prehistoric)
Site Name Todshaw Hill
Classification Fort (Prehistoric)
Alternative Name(s) Whitcastle Hill; Todshaw Hill 1
Canmore ID 54179
Site Number NT41SW 10
NGR NT 4474 1245
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/54179
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Roberton
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Roxburgh
- Former County Roxburghshire
NT41SW 10 4474 1245
(A: NT 4474 1245; B: NT 4475 1258) Forts (NR)
[For 'B', see NT41SW 11].
OS 6" map (1958).
See also NT41SW 11.
Fort, Todshaw Hill 1: This fort lies on a ridge (900 ft OD) which develops from level ground on the NE and runs SW to end in a small rocky bluff. Measuring 300 ft in overall length from NE to SW by 236 ft in greatest breadth, the fort is defended by three earthen ramparts, the inner of which encloses an area measuring 220 ft by 124 ft. The entrance is near the SW end of the NW side; another gap, 8 ft wide, just S of the bluff, is probably recent.
On the bluff where it is best preserved the rampart is 24 ft broad; it is only a few inches high internally, but stands 6 ft above the bottom of the rock-cut ditch which lies outside it. This ditch is 9 ft wide. The medial rampart is 26 ft broad where it crosses the bluff and stands 4 ft above both the inner and outer ditches; it is interrupted by cultivation for a length of 70 ft SE of the bluff.
The ditch outside the medial rampart is 8 ft wide. The outer rampart is 16 ft broad and stands 3 ft above the bottom of the ditch, but is only a few inches high on its outer face; its course is similar to that of the medial rampart. At the NE end of the fort both sides of the outer rampart fade into the ridge as did those of the medial one.
In view of the elaborate nature of the rest of the defences, the absence of banks and ditches crossing the ridge outside the inner bank suggests either that the task of cutting through the solid rock of the ridge was left to the last and ultimately never done at all, or that it was avoided by the use of a heaped bank or palisade all traces of which have been obliterated. In the interior there are signs of quarrying along the spine of the ridge, together with a crescentic depression, which probably represents a hut floor.
RCAHMS 1956, visited 1948.
This fort is generally as described and planned by the RCAHMS.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (EGC), 24 February 1965
As described above.
Surveyed at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (JB), 20 December 1979.
Note (7 August 2015 - 24 May 2016)
This fort is situated on a low rocky ridge that planes up from the NE to terminate on the SW in a rocky escarpment. Curiously the defences are most developed at this SW end, where there are no fewer that three ramparts with intermediate rock ditches. These are carried onto the flanks of the ridge, but peter out eastwards, effectively reducing to two ramparts with a medial ditch, but only the inner rampart returns across the spine of the ridge on the NE, where it is reduced to a low bank. The inner rampart follows the lip of the ridge to enclose an irregular area measuring a maximum of 76m from NE to SW by 37m transversely (0.2ha). The entrance is towards the SW end of the NW side, where the gaps in the ramparts have been staggered to create an approach that mounts the slope obliquely and exposes the visitor's right side. A second gap in a deep re-entrant in the flank of the ridge on the S is probably of relatively recent date, in the view of RCAHMS investigators in 1948, to allow the interior to be cultivated. A single house platform can be seen dug into the rocky spine in the middle of the interior.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 24 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3274
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding building.
Information from Scottish Borders Council.
