Chesterknowes

NT52NW 8 525 263.

(Centre: NT 5246 2627) Fort (NR)

OS 6" map (1924)

Earthwork, Chesterknowes (Site). The small earthwork which stands at a height of 700ft OD on the SW end of a ridge, 340 yds WNW of Chesterknowes farm, has been almost completely destroyed by cultivation. According to the OS map it consisted of double ramparts and a medial ditch enclosing an ovoid area measuring about 190ft from NE to SW by 80ft from NW to SE.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 1939

(i) Miscellaneous Earthworks: In the absence of excavation, over eighty earthworks in the county cannot be 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 (No 278), the group of earthworks on Whitcastle Hill (No. 865), and five roughly D-shaped earthworks lying within a radius of two miles between the River Teviot and the Slitrig Water - Gray Hill 2 (No. 999), Birny Knowe (No. 995), Crom Rig (No. 1000), Dodburn (No. 160,ii), and Pen Sike (No. 168) - 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 (No. 435), Iron Castle (No. 945), and Scraesburgh (No. 466), 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

Contrary to the above, the remains of this earthwork are quite apparent. It consists of the remains of an inner rampart and what appears to have been an outer rampart, but the latter has been ploughed down, and the scarp now merges with the natural slopes of the ridge. The entrance appears to have been from the SW. On the SE side the inner rampart is 2.5m high and its counter-scarp 1.2m high. The scarp of the outer rampart is 4.4m high at its maximum height. Between the ramparts on this side is rig and furrow cultivation. On the north and west sides the inner rampart is 1.7m high, and the outer rampart attains a maximum height of 3.4.m on the north side. On the NE side there appears to be possibly three ditches with spread mounds on either side. The outermost ditch is suspect, as rig and furrow cultivation runs NW-SE along the same lines of these defences, but the height of the rampart existing confirms their originality. The west ditch is 1.0m deep, the medial ditch 0.5m deep, and the east ditch 0.5m deep.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (EGC) 15 February 1961