Laird's Hill

A small oval fort, which occupies the south-west tip of Laird's Hill, has survived in poor condition following landscaping activities undertaken in the late-nineteenth or early-twentieth century.

The remains of the fort sit upon a rocky plateau, and measure 100m in extent from east to west, by 60m transversely. It is located in a very defensive site: it is surrounded on three sides by steeply-sloping ground.

The fort was enclosed by two ramparts, separated by a rock-cut ditch up to 10m wide and almost 2m deep in places.

This fort is likely to be prehistoric in date, and may have been occupied during the first millennium BC. The rectangular enclosure, which stands within the fort, is probably of relatively recent date.

Text prepared by RCAHMS as part of the Accessing Scotland's Past project

NT63NE 3 6982 3897.

(Centred: NT 6982 3897) Fort (NR)

OS 6"map, Roxburghshire, (1919-38).

Fort, Lairds Hill.

Lairds Hill, a ridge of rock running from NE to SW and rising to a height of 600ft OD, was formerly incorporated in the grounds of Stichill House, and the small fort at its SW tip (see plan RCAHMS 1956, fig.575) has been almost entirely destroyed by the construction of footpaths round the perimeter and by planting. The site, an oval plateau with an extensive view to S and W, is admirably adapted for defence, being separated by a narrow neck of land from the slightly higher ground to the NE and protected elsewhere by steep slopes on the SE and SW and by a shorter and more gentle declivity on the NW. All that remains of the fort is a semi-oval scarp at the E apex fronted by a ditch with a rampart on the counterscarp. The scarp, which was probably surmounted originally by an inner rampart, now levelled, is not carried completely across the neck but returns sharply on the SE to leave a narrow corridor, occupied by a footpath, between its foot and the edge of the plateau. While this return may be partly or wholly due to terracing for the modern footpath, the fact that the ditch stops some 20ft short of the edge of the plateau suggests that the original entrance to the fort was situated at this point. The ditch is rock-cut and measures up to 30 ft in width from the crest of the scarp to the crest of the outer rampart, 8ft in width at the bottom and 5ft in depth; while the short segment of outer rampart, which dies into the natural slopes at either end, is 20ft. thick at the base and up to 4ft high. The rampart is of heaped construction and a capping of loose stones indicates that the material was obtained either from the rock-cut ditches or from an adjacent quarry. On the assumption that the fort extended to the natural limits of the plateau, it may be supposed to have been roughly oval in shape with maximum overall measurements of 300 ft from E to W by 180ft from N to S.

The E half of the interior is flat and is largely occupied by a rectangular enclosure, of which only three sides remain. It was formed by a dry wall, now reduced to a heap of stones, averaging 6ft in thickness. Although the OS map marks this enclosure as part of the fort it is patently later in date, but its actual age and purpose can only be determined by excavation. No other structures were observed either in this area or in the W half of the site, which is at a slightly lower level, partly owing to quarrying, and slopes gently from E to W; the whole of the interior, however, though recently cleared of timber, was thickly overgrown with weeds and scrub at the time of visit.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 23 May 1947.

As described above,

Revised at 1/2500.

Visited by OS(RDL) 25 November 1963.