Bunkle Edge Forts. By Francis Lynn. 867 



Preston- cleuch Camp, which we shall call No. 1, occupies 

 a position of great natural strength ; the cleugh forming 

 such a strong defence that terraces have been considered 

 sufficient defence on that side. These terraces were probably 

 stockaded, which would make them impregnable to ordinary 

 attack. On the west the Fort is girdled by a double line 

 of wall and ditch, quite the strongest works of the kind 

 occurring in this district (I do not remember any which are 

 wider and deeper, except perhaps those at the upper end of 

 Addingston Fort, in Lauderdale.) The interior has, to all 

 appearance, been under cultivation of some kind during the 

 middle ages, so that no distinct vestiges of the buildings 

 now remain. Two entrances are indicated through opposite 

 angles of the Fort, both strongly protected. 



Proceeding eastward along the ridge, the first object of 

 Antiquarian interest is a line of hollow trench and mound, 

 marked on the Ordnance Survey as remains of Camp, and 

 sometimes known in the district as Danish Camps. I shall 

 leave this work to be afterwards considered along with 

 other works of the same kind. 



No. 2 Fort or Camp occurs inside the plantation about a 

 mile from Preston-cleuch, and is of an irregular, oblong, 

 square form, with the angles rounded, rather suggestive of 

 Roman work. There is an appearance at the east end as 

 if the wall had been recently altered by foresters or others. 

 Here and along the north side there is only one line of wall 

 or mound, with the ditch outside; but on the west and 

 south there is a double line. Inside the Camp, about 44 

 feet from the north wall, and parallel with it, there runs 

 a straight terrace and platform, almost the whole length of 

 the Fort. This terrace is, for the most part, of natural 

 rock, being in fact an ice-formed ridge. It has evidently, 

 however, been considered and utilised by the makers of the 

 Camp, as the walls have been run parallel to it; and at the 

 west end, where the natural rock crest has been deficient, 

 it has been artificially made up. Probably a line of dwell- 

 ings were placed along this terrace. Inside the Fort, at the 

 south-west corner, there are some straight dividing mounds, 

 of a character unusual in British Forts. Possibly these may 

 have been formed at some middle-age period, subsequent to 

 its occupation by its original builders. The measurement 



