Description

The site comprises a single circular earthwork thought to be the remains of a post-medieval sheepfold. The remains are visible as a low, turf-covered earthen feature in upland grazing, located on the north northwest slope of Black Hill above a small pass between Langloch Knowe and the Cow Castle ridge, at approximately 290m above sea level. 

The earthwork has previously been recorded as 13m in diameter and surviving to a height of 0.3m. The ring appears uninterrupted, although a depressed section in its northwest arc may suggest the position of a former entrance. There is evidence of turf stripping activity beyond the ringwork. 

The form and location of the earthwork is consistent with turf-walled sheepfolds and therefore, post-medieval in date, probably from the 18th and/or 19th centuries. 

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

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

Intrinsic Characteristics 

The monument was first recorded in 1890 as a hut circle (Christison 1890, 312)). It was then mapped as a hut circle on the Ordnance Survey 6" map, Lanarkshire, 2nd ed (1912), and RCAHMS surveyors continued with this interpretation in 1965. However, it does not appear in the RCAHMS inventory of prehistoric monuments in Lanarkshire and is mapped as a sheepfold by the Ordnance Survey from 1962 (OS 1:10,560, NT03SW, 1962). By 1972, it is noted by the Ordnance Survey that 'the fact that it is built on a slope with no certain entrance suggests it to be a sheepfold'.

Results from recent research into a group of sites with similar field characteristics have suggested a much later, post-medieval date and a likely agricultural function. Scrutiny of this example using historic mapping and airborne laser scanning concludes with this post-medieval and agricultural date and function – an earthen enclosure used to manage sheep on upland grazing. 

These remains are therefore a relatively common feature of post-medieval agricultural activity. They are simple turf and stone-built structures with relatively low archaeological potential. 

Contextual characteristics 

The monument (a single sheepfold) is a component of a wider hill farming system, exploiting upland improved pasture along several catchments of the upper River Clyde. It is only partly representative of post-medieval agricultural activity taking place in the wider area. 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 single post-medieval livestock enclosure, does not make a significant contribution to our understanding or appreciation of the past and does not have the potential to do so. The feature is of a simple earth and turf construction with limited archaeological potential in the buried soil layers. A section of the earthwork where it depressed is interesting but this does not provide further, sufficient character. 

b. The monument is not a rare example of its class, with over 3300 examples of sheepfolds recorded which will include a wide variety of enclosures used to collect and control sheep. Some of these will include turf or earthen bank enclosures of a similar form to this example. 

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

National Record of the Historic Environment ID 48756: https://www.trove.scot/place/48756 (accessed on 08/08/2025).

Christison D, 1890. Forts, camps, and motes of the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire in, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 24, 312.

trove.scot

https://www.trove.scot/place/48756/

Source: Historic Environment Scotland