Description

The site comprises two circular enclosures and a small earthen mound, thought to be the remains of post-medieval stock control features. The remains are visible as low, turf-covered earthen features, located in upland grazing between the locally high points at Green Knowe to the north northwest and Crailzie Hill to the south southwest.   

The eastern-most enclosure is defined by a circular earthen bank measuring about 13m in overall diameter by 0.3m in height. To its west, there is a small earthen mound measuring around 2m in diameter by 0.3cm high. The second enclosure is about 170m to the southwest and it is also defined by a circular earthen bank measure around 10m in overall diameter and surviving to a height of around 0.3m. The circuits of both enclosures have no obvious evidence of entrances although a slight dip in the line of the bank of the southwest enclosure may indicate the location of a former entrance. The form and location of the enclosures are consistent with post-medieval turf-walled sheepfolds, while the mound is likely to relate to their construction. 

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The culture significance of the site has been assessed as follows:

Intrinsic Characteristics

The monument was first recorded in 1962 when researchers interpreted the remains as those of a prehistoric burial monument consisting of a barrow and two ring enclosures. This interpretation was the evidence base supporting the original designation.

Subsequent research has revised the likely origins and function of the two enclosures and earthen mound. Evidence shows that the two ring enclosures represent much later, agricultural activity and specifically a type of stock enclosure, or sheepfold, dating to the post-medieval period. The mound is thought too small to be a type of burial monument and is more likely to be the remains of a mound of turves associated with the building of the enclosures.

These remains are a common feature of post-medieval agriculture. They are simple turf and earth-built structures with relatively low archaeological potential.

Contextual characteristics

The monument is an isolated component of a wider hill farming system, exploiting upland improved pasture at the west side of the Moorfoot Hills. It is only partly representative of the agricultural activity taken place here. It is part of a wider regional distribution of similar earthen structures built for the management of livestock.

It is not a rare survivor of its type and taken in isolation from the agricultural system to which it belongs, it has limited potential to help us understand how the wider landscape has developed.  

Associative characteristics

No known associative character relating to this monument.

National importance

The site does not meet the criterion of national importance for the following reasons:

a. The monument, as a grouping of post-improvement livestock enclosures, does not make a significant contribution to our understanding or appreciation of the past and does not have the potential to do so. It is of a simple earth and turf, circular and mounded construction with limited archaeological potential in the buried soil layers.  

b. The monument is not a rare example of its class, with over 280 examples of ring enclosure (used to describe small circular enclosure of an agricultural nature defined by a turf or earthen bank) recorded in the national record and 24 examples known of within 10km of this location. There are an additional 3316 sheepfolds recorded which will include a wide variety of enclosures used to collect and control sheep.

c. The monument does not have sufficient research potential with which to significantly contribute to our understanding or appreciation of the past. There is limited scientific, archaeological, historic or traditional, interest in this type of agricultural remains.

d. As an isolated component of a wider agricultural system, the monument does not a significant contribution to today's landscape or our understanding of the historic landscape.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

Historic Environment Scotland http://www.canmore.org.uk reference number CANMORE ID 49969, 49979 and 49980 (accessed on 20/05/2024):

https://canmore.org.uk/site/49969/flemington-burn

https://canmore.org.uk/site/49979/flemington-burn

https://canmore.org.uk/site/49980/flemington-burn

RCAHMS, 1967, The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Peeblesshire: an inventory of the ancient monuments. The Stationery Office. Edinburgh.

Canmore

https://canmore.org.uk/site/49980/

Source: Historic Environment Scotland