West Addinston Hill

About West Addinston Hill

Many hillforts only have small, subtle earthworks left after 2,000 years of erosion and farming. Not so with West Addinston Hill, whose high mounds and deep trenches have drawn comparison with sprawling English hillforts like Danebury Hill.

West Addinston occupies the southern spur of Addinston Hill overlooking the junction of two burns flowing out from the Lammermuirs. It is barely visible on approach, but once up close its 3-metre-deep internal ditch, wave-like mound, and multiple earthen ramparts are dauntingly dramatic. The hillfort measures 82 metres by 50 metres and has extensive views along the north-south valley of the Leader Water.

This area is bristling with hillforts. In the Iron Age it was controlled either by the Selgovae or Votadini tribe, the former with their de facto capital at Eildon Hill North and the latter based at Traprain Law and Edinburgh Castle Rock. The inhabitants would have watched on as the Romans carved the road later known as Dere Street into the land opposite the valley near Oxton.

Just across from West Addinston Hill on the spur of Longcroft Hill is another exceptionally impressive hillfort simply called Longcroft. Even larger than West Addinston, its multiple layers of ditches and internal scatterings of stones hint at a busy and commanding hilltop settlement. With even more hillforts dotted around the immediate area, the duo of West Addinston Hill and Longcroft occupy one of the most densely fortified Iron Age landscapes in southern Scotland – and, therefore, anywhere in Britain.

NB: Postcode gives approximate location only. For accuracy use what3words: thing.smarting.upward or National Grid Reference: NT 5232 5363