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Hill forts in Scotland typically date from the Bronze and Iron Ages, but post-Roman inhabitation of many sites is also important. The remains today typically survive only as earthworks with occasional traces of structural stone in varying quantity. Remains of vitrified forts are also found throughout Scotland.
Hillforts in Scotland are earthworks, sometimes with wooden or stone enclosures, built on higher ground, which usually include a significant settlement, built within the modern boundaries of Scotland. They were first studied in the eighteenth century and the first serious field research was undertaken in the nineteenth century.
There have been well over two thousand castles in Scotland, although many are known only through historical records. They are found in all parts of the country although tower houses and peel towers are concentrated along the border with England, while the best examples of larger Renaissance-era tower houses are clustered in the north-east ...
Roman roads and settlements 84 AD Plan showing annexes and "Great Camp" First fort defences Plan; red lines show early defences. Trimontium was a Roman fort complex [1] located at Newstead, near Melrose, in the Scottish Borders, in view of the three Eildon Hills which probably gave its name (Latin: trium montium, three hills).
Dunbar Castle was one of the strongest fortresses in Scotland, situated in a prominent position overlooking the harbour of the town of Dunbar, in East Lothian. Several fortifications were built successively on the site, near the English-Scottish border. The last was slighted in 1567; it is a ruin today.
Vitrified forts are stone enclosures whose walls have been subjected to vitrification through heat. [1] It was long thought that these structures were unique to Scotland, but they have since been identified in several other parts of western and northern Europe.
As a result, Robert the Bruce (r. 1306–29) adopted a policy of castle destruction (known as slighting), rather than allow fortresses to be easily retaken and then held by the English, beginning with his own castles at Ayr and Dumfries, [15] [16] and including Roxburgh and Edinburgh. [17]
The western wall of the upper enclosure was excavated in 1969 and found to be exceptionally massive, with an 8-metre-thick (26 ft) base and a surviving height of 3 metres (9.8 ft). [6] The wall would originally have been even more formidable, [ 11 ] up to 6 metres (20 ft) high [ 12 ] and possibly topped by a wooden superstructure. [ 3 ]