Eildon hill lies just south of Melrose, Scotland in the Scottish Borders, overlooking the town. The north hilltop (of three peaks) is surrounded by over 5 km (3 miles) of ramparts, enclosing an area of about 16 ha (40 acres) in which at least 300 level platforms have been cut into the rock to provide bases for turf or timber-walled houses.

Excavations have found evidence that the hill fort was occupied by 1000 BC, in the Bronze age. The ramparts seem to have been built and rebuilt in three phases. At its peak the population of the hill could have been 3000 to 6000, the largest known in Scotland from this period. While evidence was not found of a significant population in the immediate pre-Roman period, the Roman geographer Ptolemy recorded the tribe in the area as the Selgovae, and Eildon hill was later thought to have been their capital.

In the 1st century the Roman army built the massive fort of Trimontium, named after the three peaks, at the foot of the hill on the bank of the River Tweed. In association with it they constructed a signal tower with a tiled roof in an 11 m (36 ft) diameter enclosure built on the summit of the hill fort, which presumably had been abandoned. However, finds including Roman coins and pottery have suggested that some of the house platforms were again in use in the 2nd to 4th century.

References

• Scotland Before History - Stuart Piggott, Edinburgh University Press 1982, ISBN -07524-1400-3
• Scotland's Hidden History - Ian Armit, Tempus (in association with Historic Scotland) 1998, ISBN 0-7486-6067-4