Fallburn

Nearest town:
Biggar (8km ENE)
OS reference:
NS96193674
OS sheet:
72
Latitude:
55° 36' 46.94 N
Longitude:
3° 38' 53.86 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Fallburn (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

The hillfort can be seen centre right of image... with Tinto rising beyond (note the massive summit cairn). Seen from Park Knowe – as here – the positioning might be viewed as somewhat idiosyncratic?

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jul 21, 2016
Image of Fallburn (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

Note the well-worn track ascending Tinto and its fabulous cairn.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 21, 2016
Image of Fallburn (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

These are deceptively powerful defences for an enclosure which I – if I’d have been an Iron Age hillfort planning dude – would’ve superimposed upon Park Knowe. Had not the nearby hill already been occupied by what I reckon was a seriously enigmatic ritual enlclosure...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 21, 2016
Image of Fallburn (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

Tinto rises above the ancient ramparts....

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 21, 2016
Image of Fallburn (Hillfort) by Howburn Digger

A marchpast of Fallburn fort as around 1,000 Lanarkshire S1 pupils do a sponsored Tinto Hill climb in aid of the local hospice.
It was some picnic at the cairn that day!

Image credit: Howburn Digger
Howburn Digger
Howburn Digger Jul 28, 2014
Image of Fallburn (Hillfort) by Howburn Digger

Two deep ditches lead surprisingly to yet another slighter ditch once you are through the entrance. The green hill in the centre of the picture is Quothquan Law topped by a hillfort.

Image credit: Howburn Digger
Howburn Digger
Howburn Digger Jan 15, 2012
Image of Fallburn (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

Although its outer ramparts are overgrown with heather, this remains a fine little hillfort.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 30, 2011
Image of Fallburn (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

Tinto – with its extraordinary Bronze Age summit cairn – occupies the skyline.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 30, 2011
Image of Fallburn (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

A small, yet powerful multivallate hillfort.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 30, 2011
Image of Fallburn (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

The path to Tinto (skyline) literally passes the western flank of this hillfort. Somehow I missed the enclosure on the way up. But not on the way down.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 30, 2011

Articles

Fallburn

GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 10, 2011

Talk about blundering around in the landscape... having only decided to try and visit the massive Tinto cairn the night before, I’d no time to purchase an OS map of the area... so took a few compass bearing notes from TMA (in case I got into trouble with cloud), nonetheless leaving me completely ignorant about the existance of this rather fine hillfort literally right beside the approach path from Fallburn. Pleasant surprise on the descent of Totherin Hill, then, to see the enclosure lying below..... although how I walked blindly past on the way up Tinto might well be a case for Mulder and Scully.

To be fair the site is (in late May, anyway) overgrown with heather, so much so that – aerial views from Totherin Hill notwithstanding – it is only by getting up close and personal that the true, substantial nature of the twin ramparts and ditches becomes apparent. Initially I must admit I thought the enclosure was tri-vallate... however Canmore cites my third, outermost rampart as being ‘a slight upcast bank on the counterscarp [of the outer bank] round all but the NE quarter of the circuit.’ Hey, the heather’s my excuse. Although, having said that, the relatively powerful inner rampart is easily ‘walkable’. I make out two entrances to the enclosure (Canmore agrees... to ENE and WNW) with some unidentified enclosure in the centre (probably more or less modern).

In my experience this is a rather unexpected location to find such a well constructed defended enclosure as this, that is at the foot of nearby high ground. Perhaps there was a ritualistic focus upon the great, sprawling mass of Tinto, crowned by its extraordinary cairn? Or perhaps just the practicality of the site won the day for the planners, the man-made defences being thought more than enough in their own right? Dunno. But Fallburn is certainly a great, albeit unexpected, way to end a visit to Tinto.

Mind you, if mountain climbing isn’t your bag, I’d say Fallburn is well worth a visit in its own right. Simply follow the main track towards Tinto from the large Fallburn car-park... and the hillfort stands to the immediate left a little way up. Can’t miss it. He says.......

Sites within 20km of Fallburn

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