Blackbrough Hill
Fort (Period Unassigned), Palisaded Settlement (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Blackbrough Hill
Classification Fort (Period Unassigned), Palisaded Settlement (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 59050
Site Number NT81NW 28
NGR NT 80860 17715
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/59050
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Hownam
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Roxburgh
- Former County Roxburghshire
NT81NW 28 80860 17715
(NT 8086 1770) Fort (NR)
OS 6" map, Roxburghshire, (1923)
Fort and Palisaded Enclosure, Blackbrough Hill: A small but impressive fort occupies the summit of the round-topped spur known as Blackbrough Hill. The steep fall of the ground provides strong natural protection on three sides, and the only easy approach to the site is by way of the narrow saddle on the NE. The fort is oval, 280' E-W by 215'. The defences comprise a single rampart of heaped earth and stone, 30' - 40' broad at the base, and a ragged V-shaped ditch, 10' - 15' wide and 4' deep. The internal height of the rampart is not less than 3' and rises at one point to 6', while the average perpendicular height of the outer face from the inner lip of the ditch is 15'. The main entrance faces the saddle along which the fort is approached; it is markedly out-turned, the two ends of the rampart swinging outwards on either side of the passageway, which is 10' wide, to cover the ends of the ditch. A few earthfast boulders at the foot of the inner corner on the SE side of the gateway suggest the existence of a retaining kerb. On the opposite side of the fort a second gateway is indicated by a gap in the ditch, 30' wide, though the entrance itself is largely blocked by the collapse of the rampart material on either side. The only internal feature of note is an ovoid enclosure measuring 110' by 85' defined by a slight trench, 18" wide and a few inches deep, which may be assumed to have held a wooden palisade. The enclosure, which has an entrance on the S, is too large to have been a hut and may simply have been a temporary protection erected by the fort-builders either for themselves or for their stock. RCAHMS 1956, visited 1949; A Ritchie 1970.
As described above.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 31 August 1960.
No change.
Visited by OS (TRG) 9 September 1976.
This palisaded settlement and apparently unfinished fort occupies the summit of a narrow-necked, bull-nosed spur. The site is approached from the NE along a narrow saddle while elsewhere the steep fall of the ground affords a strong natural defence.
The site commands extensive views over the Heatherhope Burn some 800m to the SW whilst Sundhope Kipp is visible on the SE as is the location of the Greenborough palisaded settlement. The braided course of The Street lies some 500m to the NE.
The site comprises four separate elements; an apparently unfinished rampart with irregular external quarry ditch measuring 115m from E t W by 95m overall and 90m from E to W by 56m internally. Within, there is a palisaded enclosure with a single ring-groove house, an alignment of four ring-groove houses and a series of small platforms scattered over the interior.
The most tenuous of relative sequences may be suggested from the horizontal relationships between groups of features seen in the interior. The earliest elements appear to be four small ring-groove houses aligned in a linear disposition from E to W. Three of these structures are of similar size, measuring about 6m in overall diameter, the fourth measures 8m in overall diameter. This fourth house apparently overlain by the palisade-trench of a small enclosure, measuring 35m by 26m (of similar size though not shape to Greenbrough Hill), and defined by a single palisade-trench measuring up to 0.5m in width. Although the RCAHMS (1956) recorded an entrance on the S, this was not identified during the 1985 survey. In the interior there is a single ring-groove house, measuring up to 13m across overall.
In turn, the circuit of the palisaded enclosure is cut, on the N, by one of a series of small platforms levelled into the hillside. There are at least seven platforms evident, none more than 5m or 6m across, dispersed over the interior of the fort.
None of the internal features described above can be linked with the earthwork enclosure. This feature comprises an irregular and uneven bank, ranging between 0.9m and 1.8m in height on the inner edge and up to 1.5m over the ditch, composed of piled rubble presumably extracted from the external quarry ditches which are similarly of uneven character although of broadly V-shaped form and about 1.2m deep and between 3m and 5m in width. The rampart is penetrated by two entrances of which that on the NE, facing the only reasonable approach along the neck of the spur, demonstrates some complexity. Both terminals at this entrance feature a very substantial out-turn to form an embanked corridor some 17m in length and 3m wide. Whilst the SE side of this gateway exhibits some stone kerbing, the NW flank is particularly irregular. In contrast the entrance on the SW, leading out to the nose of the spur, is much simpler, although there are traces of embankment against the ditch terminals, though to a much lesser extent than is to be seen at the NE entrance.
Outside the S side of the rampart, there is a short series of pits which might suggest the commencement of working on a second ditch., possibly signalling the intention to construct a bi-vallate fortification. Alternatively they may represent an initial marking out of the line of the rampart which was subsequently abandoned in favour of the present circuit. In either case, the impression that the fort was left unfinished, remains.
Information from RJ Mercer (University of Edinburgh) April 1985
RCAHMS MS 2598.
Note (21 September 2015 - 20 October 2016)
This fort is situated on the summit of Blackbrough Hill, which is itself the SW spur of the hill forming the summit at the S end of Craik Moor. The fort dominates a short steep slope rising out of the saddle on the NE, while elsewhere on the NW and SE the ground falls away sharply into Cribs Hope and Heather Hope respectively, and though the crest of the spur shelves more gently for some 200m to the SW, here again the slope plunges 180m down into the valley of the Heatherhope Burn. Oval on plan, the fort measures 85m from ENE to WSW by 65m transversely (0.43ha) within a single rampart with an external ditch, both presenting such a ragged appearance that in 1985 Roger Mercer suggested that the defences were unfinished. Be that as it may, these are amongst the most substantial fort defences to be found anywhere in the northern Cheviots, with a rampart 9m to 12m in thickness by between 0.9m and 1.5m in height internally and 4.5m externally, and a ditch up to 4.5m in breadth by 1.2m in depth. There are entrances on the NE and SW, the former opening onto the saddle and flanked by the rampart which turns out to either side of the gap to create a passage descending between the terminals of the diches, a feature more usually associated with entrances where inner an outer ramparts return and unite. In addition to the fort defences, there is also an oval palisaded enclosure lying at in the middle of the interior and measuring some 33m from NW to SE by 26m transversely. On its N side traces of a large timber round-house defined by a shallow groove are visible, while Mercer noted another smaller example apparently cut by the palisade trench on the S. This latter is one of a row of four he found, while elsewhere in the interior of the fort he noted a scatter of shallow and irregular scoops and platforms, one cut through the palisade trench. The only other features of note are a rough line of pits he noted outside the defences on the S, and a bank and ditch cut through the outer lip of the fort ditch on the ESE; descending a short distance down the slope, it blocks access round the SE side of the fort, but it is unclear whether this is merely a later boundary or a feature of the defences.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 20 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3479
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
