More information : [NZ 08648230] Camp [L.B.] (1)
An oval-shaped earthwork, 349 ft E-W and 282 ft N-S, with two ramparts, the outer on the south side only. A gap at the SE corner is probably the original entrance. Inside, there are the foundations of a medieval tower. (2)
Many querns found pre 1827. (3)
Listed as possible pre-Roman Iron Age multivallate [forts, settlements and enclosures]. (4)
A well-defined enclosure now heavily overgrown with trees and shrubs. Dimensions are as given by Ball, but the outer rampart is extant on the west and south sides, and the entrance approximately central to the latter. The site is of no great natural strength, but the defences suggest an Iron Age origin, and the work is a likely fort, or defended settlement. There are no surface indications of the tower apart from a slight platform, and a scatter of stone near the centre of the interior. Published survey (25") revised. (5)
NZ 0864 8230. Defended settlement 200m SW of Bolam Hall. Scheduled RSM No 25148. The roughly oval enclosure measures a maximum of 100m E-W by 72m N-S within two ramparts of stone and earth. The outer rampart has been levelled on the E side. Elsewhere the inner rampart is the most substantial, averaging 8m to 10m wide and standing up to 2m high. An original entrance 5m wide is visible on the S side. A well worn trackway, no longer visible as a surface feature, lay immediately outside the SW corner of the enclosure and probably represented an original approach to the S entrance. As late as 1920 the foundations of a stone medieval tower were visible within the
prehistoric enclosure; this is no longer detectable as a surface
feature. It is thought that the tower was demolished to provide
building material for the 19th century Bolam Hall. (6)
The tower house was built in the mid 12th century, but early in the 13th century was dilapidated and abandoned. (7) |