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Camp Knowe
Fort (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Camp Knowe
Classification Fort (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 55566
Site Number NT53NW 15
NGR NT 5400 3574
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/55566
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Melrose
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Ettrick And Lauderdale
- Former County Roxburghshire
NT53NW 15 5400 3574.
(NT 5400 3574) Fort (NR)
OS 6" map (1967)
This fort stands on the W end of Gattonside ridge, at a height of 780 ft OD. The site possesses no great natural strength, but it commands extensive views over the surrounding country except along the ridge towards the E.
The fort is oval on plan, measuring 245ft from E to W by about 135ft transversely, and has two ramparts which are now ruinous; the outer rampart has been reduced to a terrace on the S side and almost entirely obliterated by cultivation on the N and E. There is no sign of ditches. Except on the N side, the inner rampart consists of a low stony bank which is spread to a maximum breadth of 23ft; a few set stones along its course corroborate a report (D Christison 1895) that it was once a stone wall.
Of the two gaps in the inner rampart, that at the W end is almost certainly an original entrance, but the other, on the E, has been used by stone-robbers and cultivators, and consequently may be either original or intrusive. The interior is featureless.
RCAHMS 1956, visited 1948
This fort is as described above.
Revised at 25".
Visited by OS (WDJ) 27 January 1961
Chalmers must be describing this site when he notes "an ancient British strength" which has long been known as the Closses, on the hill above Gattonside, 3/4 mile W of Chester Knowe. This was a strong camp of an irregular rhomboidal figure, encompassed by a rampart of stones. Its area was nearly 4 1/2 acres. There seem plainly to have been some buildings within it as there are still a great quantity of stones covering the whole surface.
G Chalmers 1810
Note (21 August 2015 - 24 May 2016)
This fort or fortified settlement is situated on the SW shoulder of the western end of the ridge known as Camp Knowe, where the ground begins to fall way sharply above Gattonside. Roughly oval on plan, it measures about 75m from ENE to WSW by a maximum of 38m transversely (0.24ha) within two ramparts that have been heavily reduced by stone-robbing and cultivation. No trace of a medial ditch is visible, but in the light of other forts in the area and the reduction of the outer rampart to a terrace, one may be present. The interior is featureless, and while the entrance on the WSW is original, in 1948 RCAHMS investigators suggested that if the gap on the E was original, it had been adapted by later stone-robbers and cultivators.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 24 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3326
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
