Friar's Nose

This fort (fig. 178, plan) is situated on a promontory called the ‘Friar's Nose’ (locally ‘Knowes’) the eastern extremity of Priestlaw Hill, which lies in the angle formed by the Whitadder Water and its tributary on the right bank, the Kilmade Burn, at an elevation of 800 feet above sea-level, and within a stone-throw of the Berwickshire boundary. The fort is pear-shaped, with its narrowest end to the south and its longest axis north and south, and measures internally, from crest to crest, 410 feet with a greatest width from east to west of 285 feet. The east side falls away steeply to the Kilmade Burn 60 feet below, and this steep natural face continues round the north side above the valley of the Whitadder. On these sides, therefore, the fortifications have been economised. There is an entrance on the east from which a rampart runs southwards, fully 30 feet in from the crest of the natural slope, leaving a terrace between itself and the crest. This single rampart continues northwards from the entrance as the inmost defence of the fort, but two outer ramparts (fig. 179, sections), respectively 47 and 78 feet distant from the crest of the inmost one, also begin, and are continued round the north sector to the northwest entrance, the outmost being somewhat down the face of the slope. About 150 feet before reaching this north-west entrance the outmost forks inwards to merge with the inner rampart, thus forming a traverse, while the inmost ends in a mound directly opposite the entrance. For 90 feet from the entrance the rampart overlaps itself on the outer side. From this entrance, which passes through all the defences and is 15 feet wide, to the south-western entrance these three ramparts are continued with an additional but smaller one between the inmost and the middle ramparts, giving four ramparts on the most assailable side facing the level from Priestlaw Hill. On this smaller rampart about 110 feet south of the north-west entrance are two impinging hut circles. The south-western entrance, with a width of about 18 feet, passes three of the defences but does not pierce the inmost one. From this entrance to the south-east corner the three main ramparts only continue, until the two outer tail off where they meet the crest of the natural slope; the inmost one apparently continuing its course round but being for about hundred feet now indiscernible. The enclosures is studded with indications of hut circles.

RCAHMS 1924, visited 28 September 1920.

Fort, Friar’s Nose, Killmade Burn.

The Inventory plan is accurate as far as the defences are concerned, but there are only two round stone huts visible in the interior (i.e. against the inner rampart on the W side, near the NW entrance). On the Inventory plan every small group of loose stones - of which there are a large number – has been formalised into a hut. There are definitely no huts between the ramparts.

Ramparts A and C have been stone walls, D appears to be simply an upcast mound, while B, which is only present on the W, is in a very wasted condition and looks as though it may have belonged to an earlier system. The short length of rampart marked E on the sketch may have been part of this system. Early Iron Age date.

Visited by RCAHMS (KAS) 4 June 1954.

This fort, which occupies the tip of a spur projecting from the foot of the NE flank of Priestlaw Hill, overlooks the S bank of the Whiteadder Water where it debouches from the dam of the Whiteadder Reservoir. Pear-shaped on plan, its defences comprise a belt of up to four ramparts with external ditches cutting across the neck of the spur on the W, but reducing to three ramparts on the N flank above the Whiteadder, and two on the E above the gully of the Kilmade Burn. Close examination, however, shows that this configuration of the defences is the later of two schemes, which has been superimposed eccentrically across an earlier scheme on the N and W. The present circuit of the innermost rampart encloses an area measuring 125m from N to S by a maximum of 87m transversely towards the N end (0.78ha), and belongs largely to the later scheme, though it almost certainly subsumes the line of the earlier inner rampart on the W; indeed the only visible evidence of the latter is on the N side of the entrance on the NW, where the construction of the new inner rampart inside its line to elaborate the entrance passage has allowed a short fragment to survive. In this earlier phase the defences probably included the second rampart on the W, but this and the fragment of inner rampart are truncated where the third rampart on the W swings round onto the N flank, probably to adopt the original line of the inner rampart on the lip of the slope dropping down to the Whiteadder. It is unclear whether the earlier defences continued along the edge of the gully above the Kilmade Burn on the E flank or whether it was essentially a promontory enclosure in this phase, but the interior was certainly larger and may have extended to as much as 0.94ha. The outermost rampart on the W should probably be attributed to the later scheme, which was essentially trivallate, only reducing to two ramparts on the E, and was served by entrances on the NE, SW and NW, though opinion in the various accounts conflicts as to whether there is a gap through the innermost rampart on the SW. The NE and NW entrances show some elaboration: at the the former the gaps are staggered to create an oblique approach that exposes the visitor's right side, while at the latter the terminals of the inner rampart overlap, creating a sharp right turn at the inner end of the entrance way, in this case exposing the visitor's left side. The plan drawn up by RCAHMS investigators in 1920 (RCAHMS 1924, 136, no.218, fig 178) shows twenty-four possible structures within the interior, but these were largely dismissed by their successors visiting in 1954, who could find only two stone-founded round-houses.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 20 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3903

The location, classification and period of this site have been reviewed.