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Hillwood was formerly known as North Platt Hill, and as such, lies just to the North of Platt Hill and Ratho Quarry, where various ancient remains have also been found. Hillwood is next to Baird Road, between Ratho and Ratho Station, not far from the other sites at Tormain and Huly Hill.
According to the CANMORE entry, a hillfort was situated on the summit of the hill, although nothing is now particularly evident, no doubt as a result of modern farming. Cropmarks are said to be still apparent from the air, however.
The hillfort would probably have occupied an area now bisected by the boundary fence of the field, half within the modern field, and half within the woods on the summit.
On the Western end of the hill, a barrow was found in the nineteenth century which contained a cist burial with a complete skeleton, a burial urn , several bronze ring fragments and a Bronze Age armlet. Nothing is now visible of this barrow, however, perhaps due to the extensive re-landscaping carried out during the construction of the M8 Extension. CANMORE gives the grid reference somewhat vaguely as NT 13 70.
Other finds around Hillwood include an early Bronze Age flat axe found while quarrying on the hill in June 1796 - presumably in the small quarried area just below and to the West of the summit. Another copper axe from the same period was found in 1822 in the bog which used to occupy the glen between Hillwood and Platt Hill but now contains the M8 Extension.