Church Hope Hill
Settlement (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Church Hope Hill
Classification Settlement (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 59055
Site Number NT81NW 32
NGR NT 8140 1625
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/59055
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Hownam
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Roxburgh
- Former County Roxburghshire
NT81NW 32 8140 1625.
(NT 8140 1625) Earthwork (NR)
OS 6" map, (1962).
An earthwork and a scooped enclosure are situated on the gently sloping NE spur of Church Hope Hill. Heather and coarse grass cover the hillside, and in the past cultivation has spread over the structures. In these, two phases can be distinguished (see RCAHMS 1956 plan, fig.215). To the earlier belongs a circular earthwork about 180' in diameter, formed by a ditch between two earthen banks. A few stones can be seen on the outer face of the inner bank. On the W side, where best preserved, the inner bank rises 4'6" above the bottom of the ditch, and the outer one 2'10". The inner bank has an entrance gap 10' wide in the NE side. Cultivation has filled in the ditch for about 25 yds on each side of this gap, and has also destroyed about three-quarters of the outer bank. The later occupation is represented by two scooped courts, with earthen banks along their lower sides, which lie in the S part of the enclosure and back on the old inner bank.
The W court measures 45' in diameter, and contains a few large boulders which may be in the remains of a building.
There is an entrance gap in its NW side. The other court is 35' in diameter and has an entrance gap in its NE side; in addition, there is a way through the SE side to a circular depression, possibly a hut floor, which lies partly on the line of the old inner bank and partly in the ditch, both of which it obliterates. There is another such depression immediately to the W and two semi-oval depressions of similar size in the SW quadrant of the earthwork.
RCAHMS 1956, visited 1948.
As described above.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 31 August 1960.
The possible house platforms within the circular enclosure, its situation and construction are indicative of a settlement. The two scooped courts are typical of the scooped homestead class.
Visited by OS (DWR) 19 July 1973.
This settlement and scooped homestead are as described in the previous information.
Visited by OS (TRG) 9 September 1976.
Note (21 September 2015 - 20 October 2016)
This fort or fortified settlement is situated on a gentle slope on the NE spur of Church Hope Hill. Oval on plan, it measures 58m from ESE to WNW by 49m transversely (0.23ha) within twin ramparts with a medial ditch, though the whole earthwork has been ploughed down and the outer rampart has been removed around two-thirds of the circuit. Nevertheless, where best preserved on the W, the inner and outer stand 1.3m and 0.8m above the bottom of the ditch, which is at least 4m in breadth. A modern track pierces the defences on the N and S, but what is probably an original entrance lies on the NE. Within the interior, and impinging on the defences in the SE quarter, are two sunken courts, the E of which has two possible house platforms dug into the top of the ditch on its SE side; the backs of two other house-platforms can be seen within the W half of the interior to the WNW of the courts.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 20 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3480
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
