BAILIEHILL FORT (NY255 905)

The climb up Camp Hill to the fort is steep, and can be slippery in wet weather. From the parking space, simply go uphill keeping the drystane dyke to your left.

As you explore this site you’ll find features resembling those of Castle O’er about 3K to NW. Were they both at one stage frontier fortresses?  This may have been “Debatable Land” between the territories of the Novantae to the west and their neighbours the  Selgovae in what are now the Borders. There were probably clashes from time to time.

The first sizeable earthworks on the way up are probably the most recent, comparable with the ‘annexe’ earthworks at Castle O’er. They may have been used to for cattle ranching in the later life of the site. Looking over the wall, you’ll see that, because of agriculture over the centuries, it’s now impossible to trace the continuation of the ‘annexe’ earthworks in the two fields to the east of the site.

Moving on up to the summit, you can see that it is crowded with circular house scoops or platforms of two kinds:

1         larger buildings defined by a ditch and outer wall foundations –