Wednesday Walk around the site of Chesters Hill Fort

The other day I went to visit an old iron age settlement site, called Chesters Hill Fort, in East Lothian in Scotland (near North Berwick - not that far from Edinburgh).

It turned out that there was next to nothing of the fort left, apart from some ditch features on the site where it existed, so it really was more of a nice walk than anything else !

The site is actually historically significant, although I dont think it has actually been excavated. There is a small parking space for it (around 3 cars worth) and then you take a short path to get to it, which took me past this lovely bunch of fox gloves (pic above).

As you near the site there is a single information board. Without it it would have been pretty hard to figure out that it even was an iron age site, never mind imagining what it could have possibly looked like. But as per the pic above, it had pretty impressive nested defensive walls with ditches in between for defense.

Walking up the side of the hill (which aint that high) you could clearly see some of the ditches. You can see one in the pic above, and according to the info board there would have been palisade stake fences on the high points on either side of the ditch.

I took a walk around the side, and what you see in the pic above would have been one of the old entrance gates. It really was pretty overgrown, so you really did have to use a heck of a lot of imagination.

The pic above shows the top where the actual settlement would have been. There was still the odd stone, etc left in place and you could sort of see where huts might have been, but you did have to look around for them in the over growth. However, to be fair, the site is probably 2000+ years old !

Although there wasnt so much to see historically, I really did enjoy the walk. The views across the countryside were quite nice, and the weather was lovely.

I even just sat for a while up at the top and just took in the surroundings. I was the only one there and it was entirely peaceful. I could hear birds tweeting away and there was a slight breeze adding to the sound. It really was just lovely.

The pic above shows the other gate entrance to the site (between the two humps in the foreground). The oddest thing about this location is that it is actually overlooked by another small hill, the back of which you can see in the pic above. It would have made it impossible to defend from projected missiles. I've never actually seen another hill fort site like it for that reason. However, it is located next to good farm land, so that may have been the main reason for its location.

There were lots of lovely meadow flowers around like these large daises (above).

Lots more fox gloves (which I love).

I also found this impressive thistle while wandering around - its the National Flower of Scotland !

I would certainly go back to the site to visit it. It was entirely peaceful and relaxing, and is a great spot for chilling out. I really enjoyed my wander around the site, and certainly felt de-stressed as a result. Plus I did enjoy the historic aspect of the site which is what attracted me in the first place, even if it did take huge amounts of imagination to get a feel for it (thank goodness for the info board). A great place for a walk !

That wraps up my wednesday walk for this week. All the best from Scotland - cheers @hoosie !

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