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Hamildean Hill

Enclosure(S) (Modern), Fort (Prehistoric)

Site Name Hamildean Hill

Classification Enclosure(S) (Modern), Fort (Prehistoric)

Canmore ID 50071

Site Number NT14SE 5

NGR NT 1870 4197

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/50071

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Scottish Borders, The
  • Parish Lyne
  • Former Region Borders
  • Former District Tweeddale
  • Former County Peebles-shire

Archaeology Notes

NT14SE 5 1870 4197.

(NT 1870 4197) Fort (NR) (unfinished)

OS 6" map (1963)

The gently rounded summit of Hamildean Hill, which overlooks the Roman forts at Easter Happrew (NT14SE 1) and Lyne (NT14SE 4) from a distance of little more than one mile, is occupied by an unfinished fort.

The inner line of defence is represented simply by a marker trench (A) measuring about 4' in width and a few inches in depth. Encircling the top of the hill, the trench encloses an area of 3 1/2 acres and is continuously traceable except for a distance of 80' at the NNE end. Although the point can only be determined by excavation, it seems likely that the unusual width of this gap is due to the fact that stretches of the trench on either side of an original entrance have been obliterated in the course of the later activity on the hill referred to below. No indications of the outer defence (B) can now be seen round the SW half of the fort, but round the NE half it appears intermittently either in the form of a marker trench or in the more advanced state of a broad, heaped rampart. An external quarry-ditch, from which the material used in the rampart was derived, is visible in some places. The entrance in B is blocked by a rectangular, turf-walled enclosure (E) which, like the other similar enclosures F and G, and the field banks C and D, is of comparatively recent date.

It is possible that here, as at the neighbouring fort on Tor Hill (NT14SE 6) one mile to the SW, the work of construction was brought to a halt as a result of the arrival of Roman forces in the vicinity. (Information from R W Feachem notebook 1961, 28)

RCAHMS 1967, visited 1961

Generally as described by the RCAHMS. An internal quarry ditch is visible behind the northern rampart.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (RD) 14 June 1971

Photographed by the RCAHMS in 1980.

Activities

Note (13 October 2015 - 18 May 2016)

A large hilltop enclosure, which was first identified as an ancient feature of the landscape as long ago as 1775, is situated on the summit of Hamildean Hill. Its perimeter is remarkably slight, however, comprising a near continuous groove in the turf up to 1.2m in breadth, with short segments of a concentric bank on the E and N, the latter flanked by a shallow external ditch no more than 3m in breadth. The interior within the groove measures 145m from N to S by 129m transversely (1.5ha) and is featureless apart from a small rectangular turf pen on the N and an adjacent stretch of a turf dyke; a second pen overlies the N segment of the bank and ditch, and a third the E segment. While earlier commentators interpreted this as the remains of a demolished fort (Christison 1887, 62), RCAHMS investigators in 1961 identified it as the remains of an unfinished fort, speculating that the cessation of work was brought about by the arrival of Roman forces in the area. In the field the groove is indistinguishable from the palisade trenches of several other large hilltop enclosures and is best interpreted as such. Nevertheless, the segments of bank, which are possibly linked by another shallow grove on the NE, may still be the remains of an unfinished perimeter, though there is no reason to make any link with the presence of Roman forces at nearby Lyne and Easter Happrew.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3628

Sbc Note

Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.

Information from Scottish Borders Council

References

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