Caerlee

NT33NW 324 367. On Caerlee Hill, half a mile W of Innerleithen and at a height of 850ft OD, there is a settlement contained within an annexe. A modern boundary-dyke crosses the site from the N to S and is joined by another coming from the SE. Originally to settlement measured internally about 200' by 150', but the E portion, which was situated in the angle between the two dykes, has been obliterated by quarrying in recent times. In the remaining portion the settlement wall (A) is now represented for the most part by a low stony scarp which exhibits no facing-stones. There is an entrance measuring 10' in width on the NW, and the interior contains six house-platforms (1-6) varying between 28' and 20' across. A circular enclosure (7), measuring 30' in diameter within a low stony bank 4' in width, impinges upon house-platform 2; although no entrance is apparent, it probably represents an intrusive stone-walled house (see RCAHMS 1967, 29).

The annexe is bounded by a bank (B), formed from material derived from an internal quarry-ditch. Except on the W, where it has been reduced to a mere scarp, the bank rises to a height of 4' and measures some 15' in width. On the N the bank is accompanied for a distance of 160' by a shallow external ditch with a low upcast-bank (C) along the W stretch of the outer lip. The entrance, on the NW, has been widened by a modern track.

Excavations carried out in the 19th century somewhere in the part of the settlement that lies to the W of the boundary dykes revealed "several bronze bracelets", one of which was of penannular form with expanded terminals (Chambers 1864, 22 and fig.5). It is not known where these objects now are.

RCAHMS 1967, visited May 1951

What is almost certainly a fort with a later settlement enclosure within its interior is situated on the summit of Caerlee Hill, which is the lower spur at the southern end of the ridge forming the W flank of the valley of the Leithen Water above Innerleithen. Oval on plan, the fortified enclosure measures internally about 110m from N to S by 75m transversely (0.65ha). Little trace of an inner rampart is visible, so much so that the RCAHMS investigators who drew up a plan in 1951 described the defences as comprising a bank with an internal quarry, which was further enhanced adjacent to the entrance on the NNW by an external ditch and a counterscarp bank facing into the saddle on the N. The investigators considered these to be the perimeter of an annexe encircling a smaller settlement enclosure on the summit, but this ignores the clear defensive position, and the way the well-defined inner lip of this internal quarry becomes a stony scarp in places on the W. Much more likely this is a defensive ditch and the inner rampart has been entirely robbed prior to the catastrophic quarrying that has devastated the E half of the interior and entirely removed half the settlement. The surviving portion of the latter measures about 45m across from N to S within a stony scarp, and encloses traces of six house platforms and a stony ring-bank which is probably the remains of a stone-founded round-house. In the course of 'digging' some years before 1864, possibly a euphemism for quarrying though apparently found on the W side of the stone dyke that traverses the fort, a small hoard including a bronze bracelet with expanded terminals was found within the fort (Chambers 1864, 22 fig 5, 37).

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 24 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3680

Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.

Information from Scottish Borders Council