Marygoldhill Plantation

18. Fort, Marygold Hill Plantation.

A little more than ½ mile to the south-west of No. 17 [NT86SW 5] along the plantation on Marygold Hill, at an elevation of nearly 800 feet above sea-level, is situated another fort (fig. 5 [DP 225493]). It is, however, entirely overgrown with young fir-trees and brackens, and its features can only with difficulty he discerned. It appears to be an irregular oval measuring some 321 feet by 255 feet internally, surrounded, except towards the west where the rampart is single, by double ramparts, seemingly of stone, and is subtended on the east by an annex somewhat rectangular on plan. As shown on the sections, the inner rampart rises above the interior from 3 feet 8 inches to 7 feet, and above the bottom of the intervening trench from 8 to 11 feet. The elevation of the outer rampart is slight. There are indications of hut circles and other erections in the interior.

RCAHMS 1915, visited 17 August 1908.

See Ber. Nat. Club, 1894-95, p. 368 (plan and secs.); Christison, p.354.

OS Map: Ber., x. NE.

19. Defensive Enclosure, Drakemire.

Apparently in connection with the foregoing (No. 18 [NT86SW 3]), there are the remains of another enclosure extending from the wood into the Drakemire Moor on the north-west. It is contained on three sides, the south side being obliterated, by a mound and ditch about 19 feet across, the ditch in places being 4 to 5 feet deep and about 3 feet wide at bottom. The two short parallel straight sides measure some 250 feet and 300 feet respectively, and the curved side which joins them about 1500 feet. From the south-west corner of the enclosure an ancient track consisting of an irregular mound about 14 feet across, and a trench in places 3 feet below its crest, runs north-west in an irregular course across the moor. A similar, though less noticeable track, the mound and trench of which measure some 15 feet over all, crosses the plantation immediately to the south-west, and runs through the heather in a south-west direction for a distance of about 300 yards. Crossing the trench are numerous traverses about 9 feet apart. Some 150 yards east of the above enclosure, and 50 yards from the wood to the south-east, is a single depression 10 feet in diameter and 1 foot 9 inches deep, resembling a hut circle.

RCAHMS 1915, visited 17 August 1908.

See Ber. Nat. Club, 1894-95, p. 370 (plans and secs.); Antiquaries, xxix. p. 166; Christison, p. 354.

OS Map: Ber., x. NE.

This site was included within the RCAHMS Marginal Land Survey (1950-1962), an unpublished rescue project. Site descriptions, organised by county, are available to view online - see the searchable PDF in 'Digital Items'. These vary from short notes, to lengthy and full descriptions. Contemporary plane-table surveys and inked drawings, where available, can be viewed online in most cases - see 'Digital Images'. The original typecripts, notebooks and drawings can also be viewed in the RCAHMS search room.

Information from RCAHMS (GFG) 19 July 2013.

RCAHMS surveyed the linear earthwork at Marygoldhill in 1980 following a field visit in February of that year (RCAHMS 1980b, No. 316), planning the linear earthwork at 1:1000 and the entrance at 1:200.

Cultural Heritage assessment for the proposed Monashee Wind Farm identifies all historic environment features within the development area through desk-based assessment and field survey. The nature of effects on these features is discussed.

Funder: RDS Element Power

CFA Arachaeology Ltd.

This fort is situated across a gentle slope dropping into the shoulder of a slight spur on the leading edge of Bunkle Edge above Marygold. The fort, which is almost certainly one of those depicted in 1771 on Andrew and Mostyn Armstrong's Map of the County of Berwick (1771), appears on the later map of The County of Berwick by T Sharp, Christopher Greenwood, and William Fowler of The County of Berwick (1826), but shortly after was planted with trees, thus escaping the attention of the OS surveyors who in 1857 annotated the large outlying enclosure on the NW as a camp. The latter, which was bulldozed in the early 1980s had a rock-cut ditch up to 3m deep (Strong 1988) and is one of a number of ditched enclosures found around forts in Berwickshire and East Lothian, though none has been dated and their relationships to the forts found within them are unknown. This is no less true at Marygoldhill Plantation, where the rectilinear enclosure measured 515m in length from NE to SW, with angles on the N and W, and enclosed at least 6ha upslope from the fort.

Now cleared of trees, the fort itself is oval on plan, measuring about 98m from NE to SW by 78m transversely (0.6ha) within twin ramparts with a medial ditch; the inner rampart stands between 1m and 2m above the level of the interior and up to 3m above the bottom of the broad ditch. There is a probable entrance on the WNW, where the E terminal turns slighlty inside the line of the W terminal, and probably a second on the opposite side of the interior on the ESE, though this sector has been mutilated by subsequent occupation and there are two gaps in the circuit here; another gap on the NNW is almost certainly relatively recent. The remains of the later occupation have two elements, namely a cluster of five stone-founded round-houses identified by James Hewat Craw on the ESE side of the interior, and an external rectilinear annexe on the NE, apparently springing from the counterscarp rampart adjacent to the western of the two gaps on this side, and returning on the NNW; though Francis Lynn's plan suggests it may have crossed in front of the entrance on the NW to mount the W terminal of the inner rampart. The interior of this annexe measures up to 90m across from NNW to SSE (0.3ha); it is subdivided by several banks and may also have contained several stone-founded round-houses

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 31 August 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC4104

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

NT 8072 6051 Excavations were undertaken on the linear earthwork forming an enclosure close to Marygoldhill Plantation fort (Canmore ID: 59927). The enclosure is visible on the ground as a linear depression which partially encloses the fort, running for approximately 200m SE–NW, turning at a right angle to extend around 425m SW–NE and around 85m NW–SE. Entrances/breaks in the earthwork are suspected at its western end, on both the SE–NW and SW–NE stretches. The enclosure is generally considered to be an annexe of the nearby fort. Excavations were carried out at the site in 1983, following severe plough damage. The ditch was found to be V-shaped, 5m in width, with a bank measuring around 3m in width on the interior. Excavations were halted at 3m in depth, which appears to have been close to the lowest point of the ditch. The objectives of the current excavations were to explore the nature and condition of the earthworks with a view to gaining a better understanding of the form, function and date of the ditch.

A trench 9 x 2.5m and was placed across the ditch on an SW–NE alignment, close to the northern edge of the plantation. An extension around 2m and 1.5m wide was later added to the SW, to catch the edge of the outer bank.

The outer bank was found to be formed of a stony, mixed deposit surviving to a depth of around 0.2m which overlay a layer of weathered natural. Running along the exterior edge of the outer bank were the traces of a wall formed of rounded and sub-angular stones up to 0.25m in diameter, surviving only to one course. This is interpreted as a footing or low wall demarcating the extent of the outer bank.

The ditch was cut into the bedrock, with the upcast material being incorporated into the banks. The ditch fill was very stony, formed mostly of what appeared to be bank material that had slipped into the ditch. Despite the previous excavators having commented on how wet the ditch fill was, in this area the fill was well drained and appeared sterile; indeed, the soil samples collected did not yield any organic material suitable for dating.

Work was undertaken as part of Whiteadder: Historic Heart of the Lammermuirs, a community arts and archaeology project led by Scottish Borders Council in partnership with East Lothian Council, and delivered by AOC Archaeology Group and CMC Associates.

Archive:NRHE

Funder: Fallago Environment Fund and the Scottish Borders LEADER programme

Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.

Information from Scottish Borders Council