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Dean Castles
Promontory Fort (Iron Age)
Site Name Dean Castles
Classification Promontory Fort (Iron Age)
Alternative Name(s) West Mains, Dean
Canmore ID 59955
Site Number NT87SW 2
NGR NT 8077 7053
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/59955
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Cockburnspath
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Berwickshire
- Former County Berwickshire
NT87SW 2 8077 7053.
(NT 8077 7053) Dean Castles (NAT)
Fort (NR) (site of)
OS 1:10,000 map, (1976).
Promontory Fort, Dean Castles: This fort is situated at an elevation of some 180ft OD, in a position impregnable except from the N, on a promontory overlooking a glen 100ft in depth. Two segmental ramparts have been drawn, with external trenches, across the neck of the promontory towards the NE.
RCAHMS 1915, visited 1909.
This camp has been well peopled; a few years ago the hearthstones of the huts were ploughed up. They were of sandstone, and bore signs of great heat. In the kitchen midden, at the outer edges, numbers of limpet and periwinkle shells were found, with split animal bones, horses' teeth etc. There was a spring within the camp.
J Hardy 1887.
Most of this promontory has been removed by recent quarrying, the only indications now being a shallow depression in an arable field on the NE where the two ramparts and ditches are said to have been; these ramparts have been ploughed out.
Visited by OS(JLD) 28 October 1954.
No change to previous field report.
Visited by OS(NKB) 22 December 1965.
This promontory fort has been destroyed. Hardy may be referring to vitrified rock.
RCAHMS 1980, visited 1979.
Field Visit (May 1911)
60. Promontory Fort, Dean Castles, West Mains.
This fort (fig. 26 [DP 224498]) is situated about! mile to the north-east of Old Cam bus West Mains, at an elevation of some 180 feet over sea-level, in a position impregnable, except from the north, on a promontory overlooking a glen 100 feet in depth. Across the neck of the promontory towards the north-east, two segmental ramparts have been drawn with trenches to the outside.
RCAHMS 1915, visited May 1909
OS Map: Ber., i. SE.
Note (17 February 2016 - 3 August 2016)
The southern end of an elongated hillock formed between two deep gullies in the hillside below Old Cambus West Mains was adapted to build a promontory fort, but the greater part of the interior had been destroyed by quarrying before 1954, at which time a shallow depression was still visible where the defences cut across the neck on the NE, but even this had been removed by 1979 and today the site is occupied by a large industrial works and its yard. The interior and probably the defences had already been ploughed when James Hardy first notes the presence of two ramparts and ditches cutting across the neck (1886, 160-1), and though James Hewat Craw describes the fort in like terms, his plan drawn up in 1909 depicts only a broad hollow, which according to his profile measurements measured some 22m in breadth (RCAHMS 1915, 31-2, no.60, fig 26). Nevertheless, the interior, which terminated in a craggy point falling away 30m to either side, measured at least 155m in length from NE to SW by up to 52m in breadth (0.63ha). Hardy records evidence of midden ploughed up within the interior, and also sandstone slabs which had been heavily heated and had either vitrifaction or slag adhering to them (1886, 161).
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 03 August 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC4114
Sbc Note (21 March 2016)
Visibility: This was the site of an archaeological monument, which may no longer be visible.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
Previously also listed under duplicate site NT96SW 510 -CANCELLED. HES (LCK) 11.6.2024
