Iron Castle
Settlement (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Iron Castle
Classification Settlement (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 56954
Site Number NT61SW 7
NGR NT 6315 1261
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/56954
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Southdean
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Roxburgh
- Former County Roxburghshire
NT61SW 7 631 126.
Earthwork, Iron Castle. This earthwork, situated a quarter of a mile ESE of Westerhouses farm, occupies an oval flat-topped knoll contained within the narrow angle formed by the confluence of Ironcastle Sike with a small unnamed watercourse now largely obliterated by cultivation. The knoll possesses little natural defensive strength since it is only 25ft higher than the banks of Ironcastle Sike and is open to rising ground on the E; while neither of the flanking streams can ever have constituted a serious obstacle. The earthwork, which embraces the full extent of the knoll, is oval in shape and measures 250ft from WNW to ESE by 100ft from NNE to SSW within a single rampart and ditch. The rampart has been constructed by scarping the flanks of the knoll and heaping the ditch-upcast on to the crest to form a bank, which may have been reinforced by a palisade. On the NNE side, facing Ironcastle Sike, both the rampart and the ditch have been entirely destroyed; only the scarp is left, and this has been partly mutilated by the construction in modern times of a plantation-bank along its foot. The rampart is best preserved at the ESE apex, where it stands 5ft 6in above the interior and 12ft 6in above the ditch, while the maximum measurements of the ditch, on the SSW side, are 15ft wide and 4ft 6in deep. There is only a single entrance, 20ft wide and situated at the WNW apex; the interior, which has been planted, contains no signs of any structures.
The siting and construction of this earthwork suggest a mediaeval rather than a prehistoric date.
RCAHMS 1956, visited 4 July 1947.
As described and planned by the RCAHMS.
Resurveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS(WDJ) 9 February 1967.
This is typical of many Iron Age settlements in the area. There is no reason to suppose it is of Medieval date.
Visited by OS(JP) 13 July 1973.
Note (1956)
(i) MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS: In the absence of excavation, over eighty earthworks in the county [Roxburgh] cannot by 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 (NT51SE 8), the group of earthworks on Whitcastle Hill (NT41SW 6), and five roughly D-shaped earthworks lying within a radius of two miles between the River Teviot and the Slitrig Water- Gray Hill 2 (NT40NE 13), Birny Knowe (NT40NE 12), Crom Rig (NT40NW 16), Dodburn (No.160, ii; NT40NE 7), and Pen Sike (NT40NE 8)- 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 (NT62SW 10), Iron Castle (NT61SW 7), and Scraesburgh (NT61NE 1), 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, 50
Note (31 August 2015 - 24 December 2016)
THis fort or fortified settlement is situated on a knoll in a shallow valley immediately S of Ironcastle Sike, The knoll stands no more than 8m above the bottom of the valley, but an area measuring about 75m from ESE to WNW by 33m transversely (0.19ha) on its elongated summit has been enclosed with a single rampart with an external ditch. The rampart has been reduced to little more than a scarp on the NNE flank overlooking the burn, but where better preserved on the ESE and WSW it forms a bank standing up to 1.6m high above the interior and over 3.5m above the bottom of the accompanying ditch, which is about 4.5m in breadth by 1.3m in depth. The entrance is at the WNW end.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 24 December 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3373
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
