Camp Hill, Bailiehill

Fort, Camp Hill (Inv. 640)

I suspect that this is a Dark Age fort consisting of a citadel (A), an inner ward (B), and an outer ward (C). Enclosures A and B have had stone walls though in most cases these have been heavily robbed. C, on the other hand, is bounded by a ditch with upcast banks on either side, strikingly reminiscent of the works at Bonchester Hill (NT51SE 10). The ditch of C is visible in the pasture field at D on the sketch and the rest of the missing circuit is suggested by vegetational marks on the air photographs. This is a site which should certainly be planned.

Visited by RCAHMS (KS) 14 July 1955

Camp Hill, Bailiehill NY 255 905 NY29SE 8

Situated on the summit of Camp Hill, there is a fort which measures 78m by 40m within its rampart, and contains at least nine circular house-scoops. An area of about 1.3ha around the fort is enclosed by an earthwork comprising double banks and medial ditch, which have been levelled by cultivation on the E and SE; the outer bank is the larger (up to 4.5m in thickness and 0.9m in height) and the whole work, which is probably an addition to the fort, is comparable to that at Castle O'er (see NY 29 SW 10).

RCAHMS 1980, visited August 1980

(RCAHMS 1920, pp. 216-17, No. 640; Jobey 1971, 83; Feachem 1977, 115)

RCAHMS surveyed the fort at Bailiehill between 14-16 August 1991 and 11-13 August 1993 with plane-table and self-reducing alidade at a scale of 1:500. The plan was redrawn in ink and published at a scale of 1:1000 (RCAHMS 1997, Fig. 74).

NY 2558 9052 NY29SE 8

Field survey has established a detailed sequence of enclosure on the hill, the construction of the timber round-houses being placed within the later phases of occupation on the summit.

The sequence of construction of the defences is both complex and imperfectly understood, but the first recognisable phase appears to have comprised a roughly oval settlement formed by an enclosure measuring about 78m from NNE to SSW by 50m transversely within a rampart which has been reduced to a thick stony bank.

The second phase is represented by little more than a length of the ditch of a small summit enclosure that has otherwise been destroyed or masked by subsequent activity. The ditch lies to the W of the summit, some way down the steep rocky slope, and its outer lip appears to cut into the inner face of earlier rampart.

In the third phase, an oval enclosure, measuring about 78m from NNE to SSW by 43m internally was constructed, with an entrance on the ESE. For most of its length, this rampart follows the line taken by the first-phase enclosure and has probably reused an existing entrance gap, but on the W it climbs up onto the line of the crest of the summit, and overlies the second phase rampart.

The successive defensive circuits on the summit fall within a larger enclosure, measuring about 143m from NNE to SSW by 114m within double banks and a medial ditch. Most of the E half of this enclosure has been destroyed by cultivation but the W half is well-preserved. Its place in the defensive sequence is unclear, but at two places on the W side, the inner bank departs from the line of the ditch and outer bank to butt on to, and thus overlie, the phase one rampart. Without excavation, however, it is impossible to determine whether this large enclosure represents an independent phase of defence or an element of one of the other fortifications.

Within the latest settlement, the stances of at least thirty-five timber round-houses can be identified; several are of ring-groove type and many have been built on platforms, but none can be assigned to any particular phase of enclosure. Several have been built across the line of the phase two defences and others have been cut into the inner face of the phase three bank.

Later occupation or use of the hill is indicated by the presence of a sub-rectangular building platform, which has been built upon a round-house stance, and a small pen, the footings of which are visible towards the S side of the interior of the largest enclosure.

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS), 13 August 1993.

Listed as fort. Overlain by building.

RCAHMS 1997.

This fort is situated on Camp Hill and comprises a complex sequence of univallate fortifications occupying the hillock forming the summit, and a much larger outer enclosure contouring around a shoulder at a lower level. The earliest of the ramparts probably enclosed an area measuring about 78m from NNE to SSW by 50m transversely (0.34ha), though its course is largely masked around the SE half of the circuit by the latest, phase 3, line, which includes an entrance on the ESE. This rampart takes in a rather smaller area of about 0.26ha, but on the W overrides yet another line of vallation (phase 2). Now fragmentary, particularly where it is overlain by house platforms within the interior, this last encloses no more than 0.1ha on the summit, but was apparently accompanied by an external ditch, which can be seen cut into the rear of the surviving sector of the phase 1 rampart at the foot of the summit hillock on the W. Within the interior the stances of no fewer than 35 round-houses can be seen, mainly comprising platforms but including several with ring-grooves. None can be assigned to a specific phase, but their construction has virtually obliterated the line of the phase 2 rampart within the interior, while several others have been cut back into the phase 3 rampart. Whether this implies a phase of post-defensive open settlement, or possibly that the larger outer enclosure was itself a free-standing line of defence, is not known. The outer enclosure, which had been virtually ploughed out on the NE and SE by the middle of the 19th century, takes in an area measuring 143m from NNE to SSW by 114m transversely (1.3ha) within twin banks with a medial ditch about 5m in breadth; The position of its entrance is unknown, a break on the SSW being relatively modern.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC1094

An archaeological evaluation was undertaken by CFA Archaeology Ltd, a desk based assessment and walk over survey (May 29th 2014) was conducted

The historic environment record within the Site Boundary is relatively limited, although there is some potential for the proposed development site to contain previously unknown heritage assets from at least the later prehistoric period onwards, given the historic landscape character of the wider area. Taking this into account, the archaeological potential of the proposed development site is considered to be low.

A summary assessment, on a site by site basis, of the predicted effects on the settings of assets within a 10km radius where the blade tip ZTV indicates that there would be theoretical views of one or more turbines

information from Héléna Gray, (CFA Archaeology Ltd), August 2015

OASIS ID: cfaarcha1-278420