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Campknowe Plantation
Fort (Period Unassigned), Settlement (Period Unassigned)(Possible)
Site Name Campknowe Plantation
Classification Fort (Period Unassigned), Settlement (Period Unassigned)(Possible)
Alternative Name(s) Synton House
Canmore ID 54329
Site Number NT42SE 9
NGR NT 4820 2194
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/54329
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Ashkirk
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Ettrick And Lauderdale
- Former County Selkirkshire
NT42SE 9 4820 2194.
Fort and Enclosure, Campknowe Plantation. On a broad rocky ridge at a height of 900ft OD, 700 yds SW of Synton House, there are the fragmentary remains of a fort and of a later enclosure which has been built inside the fort.
The fort was evidently of the "ridge" type which is well represented in the adjoining district of Roxburghshire, but only a portion of the
SW end, at present situated within a felled plantation, has escaped destruction by cultivation. The surviving defences (I on RCAHMS plan) consist of a rampart and an external rock-cut ditch which cross the main axis of the ridge from NW to SE; the rampart, which is formed of upcast and shows no signs of stonework, stands to a height of 8ft 3 in. above the bottom of the ditch, while the ditch has an effective width of about 30ft and is 5ft in depth. On reaching the NW side of the ridge the ditch descends the slope obliquely for 70ft before it dies out, while the rampart returns at right angles along the margin of the summit area where a disconnected length of 145ft is still preserved. On the opposite (SE) side of the ridge both defences have been destroyed by a field wall a short distance from the lip of the slope, and although the rampart no doubt followed the margin of the ridge-top on this side also, no trace of it can now be seen. Within the fort there are the remains of a secondary enclosure which is an incomplete oval on plan. It is formed by a fragmentary earthen bank (II) wasted and spread to a maximum width of 18ft; the inner face is nowhere more than a few inches in height, but the outer face stands to as much as 5ft 6 in. above the present ground surface.
RCAHMS 1957, visited 1950
Centred NT 4820 2194 As described by RCAHMS.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 26 April 1965
The remains of this fort are situated at the NE end of a rocky ridge and are now under pasture, all the trees referred to in earlier accounts having been removed some years ago. The site is generally as described, but the inner earthwork may be the remains of a settlement, rather than simply an enclosure.
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS/IMS) 9 September 1993.
Note (29 September 2015 - 20 October 2016)
What is either a fort or a defended settlement is situated on a low rocky ridge that was once clothed in a plantation bounded by a stone dyke that extends along the lip of the ridge on the SE and cuts back NW at right-angles on the NE. The remains are both complex and denuded, with inner and outer enclosures, the latter probably representing more than one period of construction. Within the plantation the ramparts and ditches of the outer enclosure at the SW end are relatively well defined, though the area had evidently been cultivated before it was planted with trees and the inner enclosure is overridden by cultivation ridges. Beyond the dyke at the NE end, however, the ground has been more intensively ploughed and though traces of low swellings in the surface of the field and nicks in the outcrops are visible, it is difficult to be certain exactly where the defences returned across the crest of the ridge. Nevertheless, the principal features of the perimeter of the outer enclosure present a markedly trapezoidal plan, so much so that it is possible that these are the remains of a strongly enclosed rectilinear settlement rather than a fort as such. Its SW end is bounded by a straight length of low twin banks with a medial ditch 8m broad, but whereas the ditch turns to descend the NW flank of the ridge, the inner bank appears to have been carried back NE along the lip of the slope. This scarp forms a continuous feature along the NW flank, and though the ditch disappears in the bottom of the gully on this side, there is a nick where the plantation wall mounts the slope some 80m to the NE which may mark its return. This measurement is then a minimum length for the interior occupying the summit of the hillock, which splays from 33m on the SW to 65m on the NE (0.5ha). At the SW end, however there are also traces of an outer bank and external ditch traversing the ridge in an arc, converging on the straight inner section at what may be an entrance at the S corner and coinciding with where the plantation dyke extends along the lip of the summit; traces of another ploughed down bank and ditch drop straight down the slope below this entrance, though to which element of the perimeter it might belong is uncertain. This complexity at the SW end was not observed by RCAHMS investigators who drew up a plan in 1950, and they made no attempt to resolve the position of the NE end, where a low swelling hints at the presence of an outer bank and a natural gully descending from the summit is likely to represent a second entrance. Whatever the status of these disparate fragments of banks and ditches, the oval inner enclosure is likely to be secondary, measuring about 75m from NE to SW by 42m transversely within a stony bank spread 6m in thickness and pierced by an entrance on the SW.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 20 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3537
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
