Description

The monument comprises the remains of a small enclosure, possibly a promontory fort, surviving as substantial earthworks and as buried archaeology, together with an area enclosing the outer defences.

The site is located on a promontory high above the W bank of the Avon Water at 75m OD. This earthwork is roughly D-shaped in plan, measuring about 48m E-W by 40m internally. It appears to have consisted of two banks with a medial ditch. The ditch and outer bank are best preserved on the SW where they cut off the neck of the promontory. Elsewhere the ditch is the only feature that survives, and there is no indication that either the banks or the ditch ever continued along the N side. The entrance probably lay somewhere within the wide gap on the WNW.

Several seasons of limited excavations in the 1980s recovered little dating evidence, although a silver denarius of Marcus Aurelius (AD 161-80) was found. Some slight evidence of a palisade was revealed.

Although the site is likely to have prehistoric origins, it is possible that it was adapted and reused in later times. It is located within the later medieval hunting forest of Cadzow, which may have its origins as part of a demense of the kings of Strathclyde. The earthwork enclosure is only 300m S of Cadzow Castle, and it is possible that it served as a hunting lodge or parker's residence before Cadzow was built in the 16th century. The site is within, and close to, the line of the park pale. One of the plantations of Cadzow Oaks, which have been dated by dendrochronology to the 1460s, is close by the site.

The area proposed for scheduling comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related material may be expected to survive. The area is irregular in plan with maximum dimensions of 118m N-S by 127m E-W, as marked in red on the accompanying map. The modern fences are excluded from the scheduling, as is the top 250mm of the modern path.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as the remains of a small later prehistoric fortification that has the potential to provide important information about defensive and domestic architecture. Although partly excavated in the 1980s, the site retains the potential to inform our understanding of contemporary economy and land-use. The possibility that it was re-used in the medieval period adds a further dimension of importance, as does its significance in providing time-depth within the nationally important designed landscape of Hamilton Palace.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NS75SW10.

References:

Archer E and Henderson B 1989, 'Cadzow earthwork (Hamilton parish), coin, foundations, post hole', DISCOVERY EXCAV SCOT, 59.

RCAHMS 1978, LANARKSHIRE: AN INVENTORY OF THE PREHISTORIC AND ROMAN MONUMENTS, Edinburgh: HMSO, 146, No. 279.

Torrie P and Coleman R 1996, HISTORIC HAMILTON: BURGH SURVEY.

Wallace M and Talbot E 1983, 'Cadzow, earthwork', DISCOVERY EXCAV SCOT, 1983.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland