Craig Hill

This site was included within the RCAHMS Marginal Land Survey (1950-1962), an unpublished rescue project.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.

Craig Hill NY 338 878 NY38NW 8

An oval fort, measuring 40m by 32m within a wall 3.1m in thickness and 0.5m in height, is situated on the N shoulder of Craig Hill; within the interior there is one possible timber house-site, and the entrance is on the W. Between 34m and 21 m beyond the wall on the S and SW respectively, there is what appears to be an unfinished bank and ditch cutting off the easiest line of approach to the fort.

RCAHMS 1981, visited December 1980

(RCAHMS 1920, p. 215, No. 637; Jobey 1971, 94)

RCAHMS surveyed the fort at Craig Hill between 10-11 August 1992 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. 126).

NY 3385 8782 NY38NW 8

The remains of what may be a fort and a later settlement are situated on a craggy spur at the N end of Craig Hill. All that is visible of the fort is a grass-grown rampart and external ditch around the S and W, but the circuit was either never completed or may have originally extended around the N and E in a different form, perhaps that of a palisade as at Gibb's Hill (NY38SW 13), and the surface traces have since been obliterated. Where best preserved, the rampart measures up to 5m in thickness and 0.7m in height, and the ditch up to 5m in breadth and 0.6m in depth. On the W and SE respectively both rampart and ditch peter out, the rampart extending a little further than the ditch in each case. A gap on the SW, which is situated immediately N of what is probably a small stock enclosure of relatively recent date, may indicate the position of an original entrance.

The settlement crowns the summit of the spur and is roughly oval on plan measuring 42m from NW to SE by 36m transversely within a heavily-robbed stone wall up to 3.1m thick and 0.5m high. An entrance on the W side of the settlement is linked to lower ground to the W by a partially revetted trackway. The interior is uneven, being set on a number of different levels, and, although the sites of several round-houses may be inferred from the presence of both back and front scarps (though not together), only one definite house platform can be identified; it is situated in the centre of the S half of the interior and measures up to 6.5m in diameter.

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS, ARW), 11 August 1992.

Listed as defended settlement.

RCAHMS 1997.

In October 2010, North Pennines Archaeology Ltd was commissioned by Edwin Thompson Chartered Surveyors, to undertake an archaeological desk-based assessment and walkover survey of Craig Hill, Langholm, Dumfries and Galloway (NGR NY 330 882).

The survey area is located within the vicinity of a number of features, including two Scheduled Ancient Monuments on Craig Hill and Little Hill, and prehistoric burnt mounds. There are also records of an old field bank adjacent to the road as well as the yet unconfirmed route of the Roman Road on the eastern slope of Craig Hill. In the 1980s the RCAHMS surveyed the area, however they were selective in what was recorded.

The archaeological walkover survey recorded 14 sites, 11 of which were identified from early cartographic sources, one site that was recorded during a 2007 archaeological walkover survey, and two previously unrecorded sites.

Information from Oasis (northpen3-84718) 26 March 2013

On the summit of Craig Hill there is a small fortified enclosure, with an unusual outer earthwork drawn round its SW quarter. The enclosure on the summit is roughly oval on plan and measures 42m from NNW to SSE by a maximum of 36m transversely (0.1ha) within a robbed stone wall 3.1m in thickness. The entrance is on the W and is approached by a revetted trackway, but this feature may have been constructed to improve the access for stone robbing rather than as the original approach to the entrance. At the centre of the interior there is a house platform 6.5m in diameter and several other low scarps probably indicate the positions of others.

The outer earthwork extends in an arc round the SW flank from a point 34m to the S of the inner wall and peters out 21m W of the entrance. It comprises a bank up to 5m in thickness by 0.7m in height, fronted by an irregular ditch up to 5m in breadth by 0.6m in depth; there is a causeway across the ditch on the WSW. The purpose of this outer earthwork is unclear: while it is conceivably an unfinished fortification, there is equally little evidence to suggest that it was ever intended as a complete circuit. Neither is it convincing as the remains of some kind of annexe, the bank simply petering out at both ends some way beyond the last glimpse of the ditch.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC1125

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