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Thirlestane
Fort (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Thirlestane
Classification Fort (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 55796
Site Number NT54NE 15
NGR NT 5688 4816
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/55796
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Lauder
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Ettrick And Lauderdale
- Former County Berwickshire
NT54NE 15 5688 4816.
Fort, Thirlestane. Occupying the top of an isloated knoll about 670' above sea level. It is on the left bank of the Snawden Burn, which flows 35' below, 1/4-mile north-east of Thirlestane farm steading, and 200 yards north of the Edinburgh road.
It has apparently been crescentic in form, measuring 225' by 90', and its earthen ramparts have been completely obliterated by cultivation, except at the northern end, where there remain three ramparts, the top of the innermost of which is 17 1/2' above the trench outside it.
J H Craw 1921
NT 5688 4816. This small earthwork still exists, but its siting on the top of a steep isolated knoll suggests that it was never crescentic in form but was of promontory type with artificial defences only on the natural approach line. There may however have been some erosion on the south-west side. The outer rampart is 6.0m broad and 0.4m high, the middle rampart 10.0m broad and 0.7m high, and the inner 17.0m broad and 2.0m high above the interior and 7.0m high above the botton of the ditch. There is a curiously smooth natural gulley sweeping round the northern foot of the knoll. There are no hut circles or other signs of occupation in the interior.
Visited by OS (CJP) 5 October 1956
Generally as described by OS (CJP) except that a very slight ploughed-out scarp, 0.1m high, can still just be traced round the NE side of the knoll.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (RDL) 5 October 1962
Note (15 January 2016 - 1 June 2016)
This small fortification occupies a hillock formed between the deeply incised gully of the Thirlestane Burn on the SW and what in origin is probably an ancient meltwater channel on the NE. The resulting hillock is steep sided, broadening out south-eastwards from what is in effect a neck on the NW. Here a belt of ramparts has been constructed, the inner of which turns along the NE flank of the interior, though this sector lies in an improved field and has been reduced to a faint scarp. The inner rampart is otherwise relatively massive, standing over 1.5m high above the level of the interior and 5m above the bottom of its broad external ditch. The outer ramparts are comparatively slight, the second no more than 0.7m high and the third on the counterscarp of the outer ditch 0.4m. The interior, which is bisected diagonally by the stone dyke of the field to the NE, measures about 70m in length from NW to SE by up to 27m in breadth; it is featureless. James Hewat Craw, who first found and planned the earthworks, identified a track dropping down towards the burn from the rear of the inner rampart, but whether this is the original entrance is unknown.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 01 June 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3998
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
