(NT 99201646) Camp. (1)

A small promontory fort, much robbed. Several internal divisions. Possibly one hut circle. Single rampart but there is an extra rampart across the neck of land to the north. A wall in bad condition, cuts off the fort from the hill to the north. One secondary building inside. (2)

South Knock Hill. A promontory fort with multiple ramparts enclosing approximately 1/4 acre. (3)

Type B2 (Forts on high ground, less dependent on natural slopes for protection). (4)

Remains of a small promontory fort are situated, at approximately 630 feet above sea-level, upon a rocky south-east facing spur, overlooking the River Breamish, and commanding the deep valley to the east and south, also the valley of the Greensidehill Burn to the west. There are precipitous slopes on the east, south and west sides of the fort. To the north, the ground rises, gently at first, to the overlooking heights of Knock Hill.
The earthwork consisted of a small rampart along the top of the steep sides, with two very strong ramparts across the neck of the spur on the north side. There is an entrance in the east side, giving access to a steeply dipping slack to the south-east. Beyond the double rampart is a wall of stone upon an earthern bank, reaching from the steep slopes on the west side to the head of the slack and the foot of more steep slopes rising north-eastwards. The wall is collapsed and fragmentary. Within the earthwork are remains of a little rectangular enclosure, possibly a dwelling place, above a small scooped area on its south-west side.
From near the south angle, a hump of living rock runs through the centre of the interior up to the rectangular enclosure: upon it is much loose stone and soil; remains of an internal division.
The internal area of the fort is very small, being approx 20m by 30m, but the site is very commanding. The nearest present fresh water supply is the river to the south-west. (5)

A small promontory fort with internal remains indicating probably two phases of later occupation. Resurveyed at 1:2500. (6)

No change to report of 21.5.69. Surveyed at 1:10,000. (7)

Scheduled. (8)

This small fort is prominently set in a commanding position on a SE projecting spur at about 195m OD overlooking the Greensidehill Burn to the S, and with clear views to the W and down the gorge of the River Breamish to the E. Steep slopes drop away on all sides except the N where the fort is overlooked by gentle slopes up to the summit of Knock Hill. The fort consists of a sub-rectangular enclosure, with two massive outer ramparts and associated ditches cutting across the neck of the spur on its vulnerable NW side. The enclosure measures 30m NW-SE by 20m transversely, an area of only 0.1ha (0.25 acres), inside a predominantly earth rampart which reaches a maximum of 0.7m high and 4.7m wide around the NW side. It has been divided into three roughly equal sized compartments; two lower ones in the NE and SW split by a stony bank 0.4m high and 3m wide with a connecting gap at its NW end; and an upper one on the NW edged by a scarp around its SE side. The area central to this NW compartment has almost certainly held a hut but the remains are now too vague and mutilated for any precise measurements or clear description except to record that there is a roughly circular flat area suitable for a hut stance. The remains of a crude `wall' evident as a line of stones 5.8m long cuts across what was presumably the SW side of the hut and this, with some stones at right angles to it on its NE side, has probably been mis-interpreted in the past as the footings of a building, but they now appear too fragmentary for that identification. The entrance to the main enclosure is on the NE side and it has been approached from the N up the SW side of a deep natural gulley by a man-made ramp some 2m wide. Inside the enclosure just N of the entrance is a small scooped area, about 3m internal diameter which may have held a small hut. A depression in the W rampart of the SW compartment is from modern usage and is not an original entrance.

Outside the main enclosure on its SE side there appears to be an extension taking advantage of the flattened end of the spur. Its boundary follows the edge of the steep slopes where a slight outer scarp can just be discerned.

The outer ramparts protecting the NW side of the main enclosure are both about 1.2m high and up to 8m wide and the ditches 0.3m deep and come 3m to 5m wide (it is 1.5m from the top of the ramparts to the bottom of the ditches). They both terminate at their western ends at the top of the steep natural slopes whilst at the E end the inner rampart ends abruptly at the head of the gulley. Along the northern crest of the outer rampart are the remains of a low turf-covered stone wall, 0.5m maximum height and up to 2m wide, which sweeps around to the E on top of the rampart to where it merges with the natural slopes. From here it meets the remains of another similar but less apparent wall which cuts down southwards into the gulley to join up with the ramp outside the entrance thus completing the defences around this side. There are slight traces of a ditch and outer scarp to this outer rampart at its W end. There are also vestiges of what might have been an outer palisade to the fort, running almost concentrically to the outer rampart. It is only just evident mainly as a faint line in the turf and partially as a slight bank, 0.2m high and 1.5m wide, running from an outcrop in the W and terminating as a scarp at the wall on the slopes at the E end. A break, roughly central, might have been an entrance, the whole is however very tenuous. (9a)