Little Hill, Craig

This site is noted in the ‘List of monuments discovered during the survey of marginal land (1951-5)’ (RCAHMS 1957, xiv-xviii).

Information from RCAHMS (GFG), 24 October 2012.

Little Hill, Craig NY 338 881 NY38NW 9

A pear-shaped fort, measuring about 110m by 60m within its rampart, occupies the steep-sided summit of Little Hill. On the SW the rampart is spread up to 5m in thickness and is 0.7m high (with a possible outer defence comprising double banks with a medial ditch) but on the NE, NW and WSW it has been reduced to a stony scarp, and on the SE it is entirely absent; on the N there are small exposures of vitrified stone. There is an entrance on the W (and a possible second entrance on the E), and within the interior there are faint indications of at least ten timber house-sites.

RCAHMS 1981, visited December 1980

(Feachem 1955, 59; Jobey 1971, 84-5)

RCAHMS surveyed the fort at Little Hill between 12-13 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 3383 8816 NY38NW 9

This roughly pear-shaped fort, which has been subject to massive stone robbing and quarrying, occupies the summit of a steep-sided hog-back ridge on the S side of Eskdale. It measures internally about 121m from N to S by 60m transversely and, for the most part, the rampart is either not visible, as on the E, or it has been reduced to a simple outer-facing scarp, in which several outer facing-stones and a lump of vitrified rock (on the NW) are visible. Only at the S end does the rampart survive, as a bank up to 5m thick and 0.7m high, and here it is accompanied by two outer banks and a medial ditch which cut off access from the ridge to the S. There are entrances on the SW and N, each of which is served by an external trackway. Within the interior of the fort there are the remains of at least sixteen round-house stances measuring up to 7m in diameter.

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS, ARW), 13 August 1992.

Listed as fort.

RCAMS 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

This fort is D-shaped on plan, backing onto the steep escarpment that forms the SE flank of this low hill projecting N into the valley of the Esk. Little evidence of a rampart can be detected along the crest of this slope, but for much of the rest of the circuit the rampart has been reduced by robbing to a stony scarp from which a small patch of vitrifaction protrudes through the turf on the N. The best preserved sector is at the SW end, where the rampart forms a bank 5m in thickness by 0.7m in height, and is accompanied by two outer banks with a medial ditch, which cut across the narrow spine of the ridge. There are two entrances, one a simple gap in the rampart at the NE end, and the other on the W, where the scarp of the rampart turns deeply inwards to either side; both are approached by hollowed trackways. The interior measures 120m from NE to SW along the chord formed by the edge of the escarpment by a maximum of 60m transversely (0.58ha) and contains evidence of at least sixteen house platforms cut into the slope around the northern and western flanks; the largest measures 7m in diameter.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 02 August 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC1126

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