Featured: Friendly specialist tours to ancient, mystical and historical sites in the UK and beyond

Friendly specialist tours to ancient, mystical and historical sites in the UK and beyond

Random Image


Toy Ness

Singing Up the Country: The Songlines of Avebury and Beyond

Singing Up the Country: The Songlines of Avebury and Beyond

Who's Online

There are currently, 348 guests and 0 members online.

You are a guest. To join in, please register for free by clicking here

Sponsors

<< Our Photo Pages >> Norman's Castle - Stone Fort or Dun in Scotland in Scottish Borders

Submitted by SolarMegalith on Sunday, 18 November 2012  Page Views: 2278

Multi-periodSite Name: Norman's Castle Alternative Name: Laigh Hill
Country: Scotland
NOTE: This site is 2.93 km away from the location you searched for.

County: Scottish Borders Type: Stone Fort or Dun
Nearest Town: Moffat  Nearest Village: Tweedsmuir / Drumelzier
Map Ref: NT11722915
Latitude: 55.548033N  Longitude: 3.400755W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
3 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
5

Internal Links:
External Links:

I have visited· I would like to visit

Anne T visited on 12th Jul 2018 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 3 Norman's Castle, Laigh Hill, Patervan: Strictly, I only saw this dun from a distance, as it was scramble to get to the top of the hill, and my fear of falling kept me on Laigh Hill settlement below. Husband, Andrew, with all the skills of a mountain goat, and no fear of heights, went tramping up with the camera. When he came back down he said: "Goodness knows why they live in such places - it's difficult to get into!" Presumably, raiders would have been deterred by the climb, so the settlers would have been well defended. From Laigh Hill settlement below, a large rock protruding from the surrounding cliff face dominates, together with what looks like a cairn, but the scramble across the rocks to take a closer look was deemed a little tricky. There are certainly 360 degree views all around this dun. Very little of the foundations could be seen, due to the high growth of bracken and overlying turf.

Norman's Castle
Norman's Castle submitted by Anne T : Looking directly north across the large rock above the entrance to Norman's Castle. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Dun in Scottish Borders

Ruins of an oval dun with preserved doorway and passageway. Read More at Canmore ID 49790.

This dun, known as 'Norman's Castle' lies above the Laigh Hill settlement, on the North West face of Laigh Hill. Excavated in 1959, Canmore describes the dun as being 25ft north-south by 18ft, within a dry stone wall 12 to 15ft in thickness.

"The entrance is on the S and measures 3' in width between side walls which survive, at one point, to a height of 4' in four courses. The E wall is straight, but the W wall is slightly curved; neither of them exhibits any traces of a door-check. The passageway, which is paved, appears to have been continued outwards for at least 7' beyond the line of the outer face of the dun wall. Owing to the steepness of the slope on which the dun stands, the E half of the interior has been terraced into the hillside, forming a steep scarp, 5'6" in height, between the level of the floor and the base of the wall."

Canmore adds that access to the dun is easiest around it's southern side. A bronze brooch dating to the 1st or 2nd century AD was found during the excavation.
You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page. To see the most up to date information please register for a free account.


Norman's Castle
Norman's Castle submitted by Anne T : View SW across the cairn on the south western side of the dun, with the River Tweed Valley below (the flat flood plain can be seen below, with the course of the river denoted by the line of trees in the distance). The slopes were a little precarious to walk across and have a closer look. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Norman's Castle
Norman's Castle submitted by Anne T : View WSW from the top of Norman's Castle, overlooking the River Tweed valley below. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Norman's Castle
Norman's Castle submitted by Anne T : Norman's Castle towers high above Laigh Hill settlement on the slopes below. There appears to be a large cairn on top of the mound, to the south of the entrance to this dun. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.

Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
NT1129 : Towards Norman's Castle by Richard Webb
by Richard Webb
©2018(licence)
NT1129 : Tree Plantation at Norman's Castle by Anthony Parkes
by Anthony Parkes
©2015(licence)
NT1129 : Tweed Valley, Laigh Hill by David Dixon
by David Dixon
©2020(licence)
NT1129 : The River Tweed from the air by Thomas Nugent
by Thomas Nugent
©2020(licence)
NT1129 : Tweed from the Logan Burn hillfort by Richard Webb
by Richard Webb
©2005(licence)

The above images may not be of the site on this page, they are loaded from Geograph.
Please Submit an Image of this site or go out and take one for us!


Click here to see more info for this site

Nearby sites

Click here to view sites on an interactive OS map

Key: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed

Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)

To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.


Turn off the page maps and other distractions

Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 201m NNW 332° Laigh Hill (Tweeddale)* Ancient Village or Settlement (NT11632933)
 607m WSW 239° Patervan Cairn, Buildings & Mound* Cairn (NT11192885)
 769m SW 216° Patervan Settlement* Ancient Village or Settlement (NT11252854)
 2.1km N 11° Woodend, Mossfennan Farm* Cist (NT12173124)
 4.5km N 355° Rachan Hill Henge (NT11423363)
 4.8km N 357° Piper's Stone Standing Stone (Menhir) (NT11533400)
 5.4km NW 318° Knowe Kniffling* Hillfort (NT08163323)
 5.4km NNW 347° Whitslade Hill Burnt Mound Artificial Mound (NT10603447)
 5.5km NW 323° Mill Rings Misc. Earthwork (NT08493357)
 5.6km SSW 202° Giant's Stone (Scottish Borders)* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NT09532399)
 5.6km SSW 202° Menzion* Standing Stones (NT0949023980)
 5.8km NNE 23° Tinnis Castle* Hillfort (NT14153444)
 6.2km N 352° Helm End Hillfort (NT10983532)
 6.2km N 8° Dreva Craig* Hillfort (NT12673533)
 6.3km N 5° Dreva Craig* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NT12453545)
 6.5km N 9° Dreva Hill West (Broughton)* Ancient Village or Settlement (NT12923553)
 6.6km NNE 18° Drumelzier Haugh* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NT13933542)
 6.8km E 89° Nethertown Stone Circle (NT185291)
 7.0km NNW 330° Parkgatestone Hill Ancient Village or Settlement (NT08293529)
 7.3km SSW 209° Nether Dod* Stone Circle (NT08032279)
 7.4km NW 312° Mitchelhill Rings Hillfort (NT06283417)
 7.5km NW 326° Cleuch Hill* Cairn (NT07573546)
 7.7km NNE 30° Altar Stone, Stobo* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NT15703573)
 8.1km E 93° Manorhead Standing Stone (Menhir) (NT19862850)
 8.7km SSE 166° Talla Linnfoots* Cairn (NT13622069)
View more nearby sites and additional images

<< Millstone Burn 5d

Snook Bank 1a >>

Please add your thoughts on this site

Cave Of Forgotten Dreams on DVD

Cave Of Forgotten Dreams on DVD

Sponsors

Auto-Translation (Google)

Translate from English into:

"Norman's Castle" | Login/Create an Account | 0 News and Comments
  
Go back to top of page    Comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.
Your Name: Anonymous [ Register Now ]
Subject:


Add your comment or contribution to this page. Spam or offensive posts are deleted immediately, don't even bother

<<< What is five plus one as a number? (Please type the answer to this question in the little box on the left)
You can also embed videos and other things. For Youtube please copy and paste the 'embed code'.
For Google Street View please include Street View in the text.
Create a web link like this: <a href="https://www.megalithic.co.uk">This is a link</a>  

Allowed HTML is:
<p> <b> <i> <a> <img> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <tt> <li> <ol> <ul> <object> <param> <embed> <iframe>

We would like to know more about this location. Please feel free to add a brief description and any relevant information in your own language.
Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.