Towwon Burgh hillfort. Photo by Harry Rowland.

[Centred NU 02340049] Camp. [OE] (1)

Tosson Burgh. An oval earthwork with multiple ramparts enclosing approximately 1 acre. (2)

The Burgh Hill camp occupies the summit of a hill. Roughly oval it measures 348ft by 168ft and contains 1.07 acres.
The rampart has been thrown up partly from the inside of the camp and partly from the outside, so that in places it appears to have an inner and outer ditch. On the north side where the natural defences are strong the rampart is ruinous and does not ever seem to have been
large. On the south and south-west there is a rampart and ditch, the highest part of the rampart being 9ft above the bottom of the ditch.
There appear to have been entrances on the east and west sides and another in the centre of the south side.
In the narrow ravine to the south of the earthwork there is what appears to be a rampart situated in the bottom of the depression. The mound extends along the south side of the camp, the west end terminating opposite that end of the camp but the other end continuing for 150yds east of the earthwork.There is an opening opposite the south entrance to the camp. Towards its eastern end the mound may be natural.
About 100yds east of the camp a ditch runs north and south across the slope of the hill, disappearing into the base of the hill to the north. The ditch was probably part of the defences. The ditches and mounds east of the camp may, however have been formed by traffic or the flow of drainage water. (3)

The camp has an entrance to the south but the openings at the east and west ends were probably never original entrances. The ditch of the camp is about 10yds wide. (4)

Type A2 (forts on the edge of precipices with artificial works on the edge of the precipice). (5)

This earthwork is situated on the summit of a knoll at the north end of a promontory. The knoll is cut off from the promontory by a shallow depression or saddle. To the north the natural slope of the hill is very steep (approx 1:3), to the south-west less steep (approx 1:5), and elsewhere the land shelves away gradually. The site which is about 710ft above sea level commands a fine view of the Coquet valley to the west, north and east.
The artificial defences of the earthwork are mainly the result of scarping of the natural slopes of the knoll, but on the vulnerable south and east sides there is a shallow ditch, strongest to the south-east. There is an inner rampart which appears to have been built up from the inside. To the north the traces of this rampart are very slight, possibly due to erosion.
The main entrance appears to have been to the south with a staggered gap in rampart and outer bank of ditch and hollow-ways leading off to the west and south. A well-defined gap at the west end of the earthwork may have been for access to the gentle western slopes of the knoll. The eastern entrance referred to by authority (3) is merely a slight lowering of the rampart although there are indications of a causeway across the ditch at this point.
There are no traces of habitation within the earthwork. The whole site appears to have been ploughed over at some time.
Authority (3) (para 4) refers to a rampart in the bottom of the depression south of the earthwork. This is represented by a very slight ridge, either a natural feature accentuated by the termination of the ridge and furrow ploughing to the north, or a ploughed down field boundary. There is no evidence to associate it with the earthwork. Authority (3) (para 5) also refers to a ditch east of the site. This is merely one of a series of hollow ways from the high ground the south. In the cleared plantation to the south another series of ditches represent either old hollow tracks, modern drainage or field boundaries.
The strong artificial defences have Iron Age characteristics and from its situation the earthwork may be classed as a promontory fort. The nearest water is to the east where there are wells and a small stream. See ground photographs. (6)

Listed as pre-Roman/Iron Age univallate fort. (7)

The earthwork is generally as described by F1, although of the three possible entrances, that to the west is the best defined. The one on the south side, like that to the east, is no more than a slight lowering of the rampart. Resurveyed at 1:2500. (8)

NU 1234 0048. Tosson Burgh univallate hillfort, 450m W of Great Tosson. Scheduled RSM No 20878. The oval enclosure measures 100m E-W by 45m N-S within a single rampart, and on some sides a ditch. On the S and SW sides the rampart survives to 2m above the base of the ditch. The main entrance is clearly visible on the S side as a break in the ditch and a very well preserved fine staggered rampart. A well defined hollow way is seen leading W from the entrance. Several prehistoric finds were reputedly recovered from the hillside in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including a bronze axe found on the enclosure by a workman in 1890. (9)