Preston Haugh

This fort, which is known only from cropmarks, is situated on the edge of a terrace formed where an old meander of the Whiteadder Water has cut back into the hillside at the mouth of the Mill Burn. Its defences comprise two ditches set about 15m apart, the inner some 4m in breadth and the outer 3m. These are drawn in a shallow arc NE from the angle of the terrace above the Mill Burn on the SW, indeed, so shallow is the arc that the interior measures no more than 15m in breadth by 60m in length within the inner ditch, an area that would be reduced still further when allowance is made for the presence of the inner rampart. This curious configuration of an extensive defensive scheme for no more than a sliver of enclosed ground, suggests that the escarpment dropping down into the old meander on the E is probably a relatively recent formation. The ditches are thus but a fragment of a much larger enclosure, which was either D-shaped, backing onto the gully of the Mill Burn on the S, or perhaps barring access to a promontory formed between the burn and the river at an earlier stage of the meander's formation. While the current parish boundaries follow the the old meander southwards, and the modern river course northwards, on Andrew and Mostyn Armstrong's Map of the County of Berwick (1771) the parish boundary follows the whole length of the old meander, suggesting that most of the erosion of the fort had probably taken place during the early medieval period and certainly long before the 18th century.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 08 September 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC4053

The location, classification and period of this site have been reviewed.

Visibility: This site is visible as a cropmark.

Information from Scottish Borders Council