Torphichen Hills and access route as seen from the west. Gormyre Hill is the highest point in the hills (to the left).

Cathlaw Hill and Cairnpapple are top right on the horizon     (KAP: Pentax Optio W60) October 2009

Is this one large prehistoric site?

Is Castlethorn alone, a credible hillfort?

Castlethorn scheduled prehistoric hillfort is to the right of the central small Canniewell Slack and to the left of the larger Milking Slack on the extreme right which leads through to Cathlaw.

February 2010  © Jim Knowles 

The Gormyre refuge stone. Just visible is the outline of part of a cross. Originally described as a Maltese Cross, now in its poor state of preservation, it could be interpreted as various other forms of cross (Potent, or Lorraine).

Until Jim took this photo it was thought that 'there is now no trace of the cross'.

The area corresponding to the eastern side of  'Remains of camp (Supposed Roman)' on the first OS map (KAP).

Part of the site on a frosty afternoon. Pentax Optio W60, red-channel, 28mm equivalent lens, interval mode, auto ISO (It selected ISO 50 in sports mode!!) f3.5, 1/60th sec. The image is blurred because of the slow shutter speed. We will take further photographs at a higher ISO. This image illustrates how photographic quality is secondary to good ground conditions and lighting.

The remains of a rectangular enclosure, consisting of a low earthen bank, near the summit of Gormyre Hill. It has been built on top of rig-and-furrow and is clearly of later date. Some 80.0m to the NE are the remains of a similar such structure. Neither of these is an antiquity.
Visited by OS (JP) 14 August 1974

(corresponding to the image taken 1st Dec 2008) Clump of gorse (top left) 7m in diameter.

Note the large, raised, curved feature which looks circular (on 192.com) and similar in size to

Castlethorn prehistoric hillfort (Gormyre: 1st and highest hill, Castlethorn: 4th hill down)

Zoom in on aerial photo http://www.192.com/maps/photofinder.cfm to compare.

Red dots on lower right 1 metre apart - will use 5 metre spacing in future.

(Northern edge on left of image)

Click on image for larger version   (f4.2, 1/1500sec) .

Frontispiece: The Photogrammetric Record 24(126): 118 (June 2009)

Note again the large, raised, curved feature to the right.

In the trees above ?

South-west corner of large rectangle (ie furthest right):  55° 56' 9.7" N , 3° 38' 27.3" W

Inverted (ie negative) image of the top of the hill - as above, the image is composed of snow covered flora.

The above features look much more complex than previously described.

Looking down on the western side of Gormyre Hill to Castlethorn.

(Gormyre Hill, Nether Gormyre Hill, Upper Castlethorn, Castlethorn)

We will return to photograph the other hills next winter.

Gormyre Hill is an impressive location aligned with Kipps Hill and Cockleroy Hillfort to the north-east and worthy of further investigation.

Gormyre Hill Survey 16 July 2009

Ground Resistance Results for the enclosure at the top of Gormyre Hill.

© EAFS

Ground resistance results for the top of Gormyre Hill with added 20x20m squares on the northern and eastern sides of the enclosure.

© EAFS

Composite KAP image looking north. 

Note the large encircling feature also shown above.  January 2010  © Jim Knowles

(NB enclosure surveyed 16 July 2009)

As pointed out by Dave Cowley, care should be taken when considering aerial photographs of sites that have been geophysically surveyed with the grid pattern aligned with the feature under investigation.  Are all of the above features intrinsic to the site or have some been introduced through walking the grid pattern ten months previously?  It has been demonstrated that kite aerial photography is an effective technique for illustrating the long-term impact of tyre tracks on a scheduled site and, in the near infra-red, of delineating the tread pattern of tyres on pasture. The next survey (magnetometry) will be carried out walking in a direction perpendicular to that walked for the ground resistance survey. Aerial photographs will be taken over a period of time to see if new lines appear.

Composite image.

© Jim Knowles

Gormyre Hill Survey 15 May 2010

Stone on the northern side of Nether Gormyre (also below, right).
Looking down between Gormrye and Nether Gormyre to Cairnpapple.	Northern side of Nether Gormyre.
Dr Peter Morris with his gradiometer	.......and resistive linear array.
Setting up the linear array with Cockleroy Hillfort in the background.

 

Magnetic Survey

© Peter Morris

The site is reminiscent of 'Ogilface in Ruins', with considerable noise from the underlying geology masking any superficial archaeology.

© Peter Morris

Resistive Linear Array Survey

© Peter Morris

© Peter Morris

© Peter Morris

Composite image.

20x20m grids 19 June 2010 

© WLAG

Ground resistance data for the north eastern enclosure, with no obvious anomalies and dominated by the the nature of the surface scrub and localised geology.  A single-handed survey carried out by Jim Knowles using an MM Instruments 216M resistance meter. 
 

View from Gormyre Hill to the north-west, IR Optio E35.

Cow Hill to the north of Gormyre Hill  - on a less than kite-friendly day.

Acknowledgements

Provisional - under construction

•  "To be sold by private bargain, THE LANDS of GORMYRE, lying in the parish of Torphichen, consisting of ninety acres or thereby, including about three acres of thriving plantation.  These lands, which are of excellent quality, and almost all arable, inclosed, and subdivided, and well awtered, are pleasantly situated in the immediate neighbourhood of the village of Torphichen; are equidistant from Linlithgow and Bathgate, about three miles, and lie within one-mile of the line of the new canal now forming.  The lands contain coal, which was formerly partially wrought; and an unlimited command of Lime (to which there is access by good road) is to be had in the neighbourhood, the property may be greatly improved at a very moderate expence.  There is a modern house upon the lands, consisting of two stories, with a good garden attached to it, besides a farm steading.  The title-deeds are clear, and give the proprietor a right to the teinds.  There is a large surplus of free teind in the parish.  The lands are held of a subject superior for a feu-duty merely elusory.This property has been long in the natural possession of the present proprietor.  A purchaser may, if desired, have immediate access."  Caledonian Mercury 3 January 1820

• Robert Gillies Esq, Provost (1823 and 1824) and High Sheriff of Stirling bought the estate and died there in June 1844.
• Jessie McCammond, eldest daughter of John Jack of Greencok died at Gormyre in September 1871.