Castle Dykes, Bilsdean

On the south bank of the ravine at the mouth of the Bilsdean Burn is the entrenchment known as Castle Dykes, a long triangular area measuring about 200 yards from east to west and about 85 yards across the eastern end. It is adequately defended on the north by the ravine, through which the burn flows, and on the east by the precipitous slope which rises about 100 feet from the high water mark, but on the south, where the land is level, it has been defended by a massive rampart of earth running generally east and west, the western extremity resting on the steep bank of the burn about 250 yards west of its mouth, and the eastern extremity terminating about 20 feet from the edge of the cliff some 100 yards south of the mouth of the burn. The central portion of the rampart, for a distance of about 110 yards across a slight hollow, has been removed to permit of agricultural operations, but there remains a length of some 50 yards at the western end with a breadth at base of 36 feet and a height of 7 feet, while at the eastern end, which has a slight curve to the north, there is a length of some 86 yards which shows a basal breadth of 30 feet and a height of 12 feet. In the eastern portion of the fort, foundations of stone structures are reported to have been encountered in ploughing.

RCAHMS 1924, visited 27 June 1913.

This fort exploits the steep-sided promontory forming the E side of the mouth of the deeply incised gully where the Bilsdean Burn cuts through the coastal escarpment. Triangular on plan, the cliif-top is cut off by a massive earthen rampart up to 10m in thickness by 3.5m in height, enclosing an area measuring 70m from ESE to WNW by about 50m transversely (0.37ha). In addition to the broad gap in the southern arc, on the NE the rampart terminates short of the cliff-edge, but in both sectors it is depicted as a continuous arc on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Haddingtonshire 1854, sheet 12). The map also shows a concentric hedge-line some 10m outside it, almost certainly indicating the position of an external ditch. By 1893, the perimeter had been reduced to its present state, but the first 25-inch depiction (Haddingtonshire 1894, sheet 13.5) shows a separate short length of rampart extending into the field on the E of the gully a further 70m to the SW; the purpose and extent of this equally massive bank are uncertain, but in 1913 it led RCAHMS investigators into believing that it and the main rampart had formed a continuous barrier to cut off an area of 0.6ha; all later investigators have adopted this view (Hogg 1945; OS 1:2500 revision 1966). While the map evidence indicates that this is not the case, this second rampart lies so far out from the inner perimeter that it is quite likely to represent a separate line of defence of a much bigger enclosure of at least 0.6ha in extent. In 1853 the OS surveyors noted that cists had been discovered here some years before (Name Book, Haddingtonshire) No.16, pp 21, 63), while in 1913 RCAHMS noted that 'stone foundations had been ploughed up within the interior (RCAHMS 1924, 79, no.126); a fragment of Roman glass has also been discovered in the interior (Hogg 1945).

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 13 December 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC0487