Easter Hill

NT53NE 30 5690 3515.

(NT 5690 3515) Fort (NR)

OS 6" map (1967)

This oval fort is situated in Camp Plantation on the SE shoulder of Easter Hill at a height of 600ft OD. It consists of a single rampart and ditch, measuring over all 310ft from NE to SW by 250ft transversely. The site commands a wide view of the Tweed valley to the S and immediately overlooks the Roman fort at Newstead (NT53SE 20), but is dominated by slightly higher ground to the N; the E and W approaches are practically level.

In the NW half the rampart, formed of ditch upcast, is spread to a maximum thickness of 30ft and is not more than 1 1/2 ft high internally, while the ditch measures 28ft to 35ft in width and up to 4ft in depth. In the SE half there is now no trace of the inner rampart and the ditch has been carried across the steep slope on a terrace 15ft wide and at a vertical depth of 11ft below the top of the scarp. Although the ditch has largely silted up in this sector it can just be discerned at the SW end of the terrace, where is accompanied by a slight counterscarp bank. One entrance, 10 ft wide, is clearly visible at the SW apex, but the opposite entrance, referred to below, is now concealed by undergrowth and fallen trees. The interior is featureless.

J Curle (1911), who cut several sections across the earthwork in 1909, reported that it had two entrances, one on the E side, the other on the W. The ditch was V-shaped, but towards the bottom for a depth of 10 ins it became perpendicular. This was noted in a portion cut through the rock to the S of the E gate. There were no traces of buildings in the interior. The only relic found was a small piece of orange-yellow pottery which came from the ditch at a depth of 4ft. It was much finer than ordinary native pottery, and was thought by Curle to belong to the period.

On this evidence, Curle considered that this was a Roman outpost designed to guard the crossing of the Tweed against attack from the N. This conclusion is no longer tenable. The plan is totally unlike any Roman work, and the square-cut channel at the bottom of the ditch occurs in the pre-Roman native settlement at Little Woodbury. It is unsuitably placed to protect a river-crossing and lack of outlook to the N precludes it from being interpreted as a signal station. Finally, even if the sherd from this ditch was of the Roman period, the fact that it came from the filling and not the primary silting suggests that it is later than the earthwork rather than contemporary with it. On all grounds, therefor, a native and probably pre-Roman origin seems indicated for this work.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 1949

The remains of this fort are generally as described above, though the plan is slightly erroneous on the N and W sides.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 17 February 1961.