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Chester Rig, Glen

Fort (Prehistoric), Roundhouse(S) (Prehistoric), Scooped Settlement (Prehistoric), Settlement (Prehistoric)

Site Name Chester Rig, Glen

Classification Fort (Prehistoric), Roundhouse(S) (Prehistoric), Scooped Settlement (Prehistoric), Settlement (Prehistoric)

Canmore ID 51347

Site Number NT23SE 2

NGR NT 2895 3245

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/51347

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

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

Archaeology Notes

NT23SE 2 2895 3245.

(NT 2895 3245) Fort (NR)

OS 6" map (1964)

A complex group of remains on Chester Rig: Three successive structures can be distinguished: the first a fort defended by a single stone wall and containing timber houses; the second a scooped settlement; and the third a stone-walled settlement of stone houses, built within the fort and partly overlying the scooped settlement.

The fort measures 450' in length by 200' in greatest breadth. The wall (I) has been severely robbed; on the E and NE it appears as a scarp measuring up to 4' in height, but elsewhere it is no more than a thin band of stony debris. The entrance, on the N, is unusual in that the wall turns sharply inwards on either side to form a narrow funnel-shaped passage-way, 7' in width at its inner end. The other gaps in the wall all apppear to be secondary. Much of the interior of the fort is occupied by the later structures, but in the SW half the site of an original timber house is still visible as a small crescentic scoop.

The scooped settlement overlies the wall of the fort on the SE. It also has been severely mutilated by the construction of the later settlement and by subsequent quarrying. It probably measured about 150' by 100' within a stone wall (II), the remains of which, where still visible, appear as a low stony bank measuring between 6' and 10' in thickness and 2' in maximum height. The settlement appears to have been subdivided into two parts, the smaller of which has an entrance on the E and contains a single house-platform; in the larger (W) portion two house-platforms can just be distinguished, one on either side of a large quarry scoop, but the position of the entrance is uncertain.

The third phase of occupation is represented by a settlement which is oval on plan and measures 175' by 145' within a single stone wall (III). For a short distance on either side of the entrance, which is 10' in width and is situated on the NE, the wall is visible as a grass grown stony bank standing 3' in maximum height, but elsewhere it is represented only by a band of stony debris not more than one foot in height. A modern quarry has destroyed a stretch of the wall on the SE and has encroached upon the interior, but in the NE half the ruinous foundations of four stone-walled houses can still be distinguished, together with the footings of what appear to have been partition walls dividing the internal area into compartments of irregular shape and size.

Outside the settlement wall on the NNE a low stony bank extends northwards from the N side of the entrance to the inner margin of the fort wall. It is 10' in thickness and only a few inches high, and there is a gap in the centre measuring 8' in width. The date and purpose of this bank are not known. (Information from A McLaren notebook 2, 74) RCAHMS 1967, visited 1963

The area is covered by a plantation of mature conifers. Fragments of walling are intermittently visible throughout the trees, but much of the site appears to have been destroyed and no coherent pattern emerges from the remains.

Revised at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (EGC) 8 June 1962 and (SFS) 11 September 1974

Activities

Note (20 October 2015 - 20 October 2016)

This fort is situated at the NE tip of the crest of Chester rig, which drops down between the valleys of the Quair Water and the Kill Burn behind Glen House. The fort is probably an oval enclosure defended by a single wall, but it is overlain and obscured by two successive settlements, the earlier a scooped settlement containing two round-house platforms, which has destroyed the central sector of the fort's SE side, and the later an oval enclosure containing four stone-founded round-houses set roughly at the centre of the interior. This is unfortunate, for these later settlements not only disarticulate the two ends of the fort, but the latter obscures the inner end of what appears to have been a highly unusual entrance on the N side. Assuming that the two ends belong to a unitary work, it measures internally about 137m from NE to SW by up to 67m transversely (0.7ha), and its wall has been variously reduced to a stony scarp up to 1.2m high or a thin band of rubble. There are several gaps in the line of the wall, but with the exception of the entrance on the N, these all appear to be more recent; at the entrance, however, the wall on both sides seems to turn inwards, creating a deep funnel-shaped re-entrant, the inner end of which is sealed off by the later settlement. A single house platform can be seen within the SW end of the interior. The latest settlement enclosure within the interior is oval on plan and measures 53m from NE to SW by 44m transversely within a wall that has also been reduced to a band of rubble; it has an entrance on the NE, facing towards one of the later breaks in the fort wall, and within its interior, which is divided into three by low stony banks, there are up to four stony ring-banks. A post medieval quarry has also been driven through the perimeter and into the interior of this settlement from the SSE.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 20 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3657

Sbc Note

Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.

Information from Scottish Borders Council

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