352 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
their height is seldom more than four or five feet. Between these 
very ancient forts and those in other parts of Scotland there is so 
little differencej that they may all be imputable to the same early 
races. 
The hill forts of a more advanced kind demonstrate such skill 
in construction, that they may fairly be referred to a period coeval 
with and subsequent to the Eoman invasion. Like the lesser 
forts, they are all circular or oval in form, but they comprehend 
four or even five concentric entrenchments with deep intervening 
ditches, and zigzag entrances, which an enemy would find it 
difficult to penetrate in the face of a body of defenders. The 
height of the still surviving rings in some of these forts is as much 
as twenty-five feet. When constructed, the walls would of course 
be much higher, and supplemented with stockades of wood, wattle, 
and the skins of animals, as was the case with the hill forts of the 
Gauls, described by Ceesar. In several instances, Mr Chambers 
had found exterior defences, in the form of high ramparts, 
making an irregular sweep, so as to enclose six or seven acres. 
Such enclosures were probably designed for the reception of cattle. 
Two of the more remarkable of these elaborate forts are Milkiston 
Kings, near Eddleston, and Henderland-hill Kings, parish of Row- 
lands ; both had evidently been designed to guard the great passes 
from the east — that is, to stem the tide of invasion of Angles, 
Frisians, and others approaching from the German Ocean. 
Of the origin of the hill forts in the south of Scotland, the pre- 
sent inhabitants can give no account. Generally they are spoken 
of as being Danish — a curious error arising from a misapprehension 
of the legendary term Dinas, which in the original British signified 
fortress, and is still so applied in Wales. This word Dinas is 
found under varying forms in many ancient languages, and is 
the original of the names of places in Scotland corruptly called 
Tinnies. While the forts in question are not Danish, neither are 
they Eoman, as is evident from their peculiar form. After com- 
paring them with a Roman camp — a castra stativa — at Lyne, Mr 
Chambers proceeded to describe the Catrail, or great barricade 
which stretches across the country from near Galashiels to the 
mountains of Northumberland, a military work also designed to 
check invasion from the east. 
