Peace Knowe is a small hillock to the South of Ochiltree and to the East of Cairnpapple, on top of which the vague remains of a hillfort can just be made out. Click here for a location map provided by StreetMap.
The base of the Northern side of this fort can be seen in the following photograph. At the time of visiting this location, access was restricted (this time due to the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001), and so we hope to provide more detailed and better quality photographs in the near future.
Peace Knowe Fort
Typically of this region, we find that the hillfort stands in the centre of a trilingual series of placenames, from the Brythonic roots of Ochiltree, to the names of the hillocks on its South side, between which the fort itself stands:
Mochrie's Craig (left) and Peace Knowe (right)
Here, the Western hillock, Mochrie's Craig has an obvious meaning in Gàidhlig, which might be written today as Craig mo Chridhe, or "My Love's Crags". The Eastern hillock, however, has an obvious Scots name, Peace Knowe, knowe being the Scots for knoll. Perhaps, though, the name of Peace Knowe, despite being in Scots, retains some memory of some resolved conflict which the hillfort itself witnessed in Brythonic times? Regardless, in this small area bears witness to the primary trilingual roots of Lothian culture: Brythonic, Germanic, and Goidelic.
more to follow...