Description

The monument is a prehistoric fort dating to the Bronze Age (2800BC-800BC) or, more likely, Iron Age (800BC-AD400) with the remains of a post-medieval farmstead within its enclosure. It survives as an enclosed promontory with earthen banks and ditches and upstanding earth covered, and exposed, stone walls and internal features. The monument sits on a relatively level promontory top with steeply sloped sides bounded by Wrunklaw Burn and the north bank of the River Dye. The northwest edge of the site leads to the gently rising slopes of Wrunk Law. The site is located at around 275m OD. 

The overall enclosed promontory fort measures around 120m by 65m. Access to the site is from the higher ground to the northwest. Across this neck into the promontory is an outer ditch, measuring over 10m broad by 3.5m in depth. The western end of the ditch leads into what is understood to be a natural gulley cutting down the slope to the valley floor. At eastern end of this feature is a break for a central entrance. Historic surveys depict a smaller ditch and bank running immediately east of the central entrance. Around 27m southeast of the outer defences is a second, smaller ditch and bank. This second defensive line encloses an inner area of the fort measuring around 70m by 50m. Elements of the inner defences may also extend along the southwest flank, and to the tip, of the promontory.  Internally, there are the remains of a farmstead occupied in late 18th century surviving as footings of a number of rectangular buildings, attached yards and a prominent circular feature to the northeast of the site. In the early 19th century, the farmstead was superseded by a shepherd's cottage located between the earlier inner and outer lines of defence. 

 

The scheduled area is irregular, covering the promontory top and extending to the Wrunklaw Burn on the east, up to 10m from the top slopes of the promontory on the south and west, and 10m from the mapped modern fence line on the northwest. It includes the remains described above and an area around within which evidence relating to the monument's construction, use and abandonment is expected to survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map. The above ground elements of modern gates and post and wire fences are specifically excluded from the schedule.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument continues to meet the criterion of national importance as a well-preserved example of a multivallate promontory fort with surviving upstanding features. The fort is in a characteristic location of other inland promontory-style forts which are found across Scotland. It is therefore an important representative of this monument type and it makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the past as a possible multi-phase defensive site dating from later prehistory, most likely the Iron Age. It adds to our understanding of later prehistoric society in Scotland and the function, use and development of enclosed defended sites. The monument retains structural and other physical features and there is significant potential for the survival of buried archaeological deposits within and around the settlement which contribute to its research potential. The visible remains of later occupation in the form of a farmstead and shepherd's cottage provide further interest and greater time-depth to the site. The visible farmstead remains are potentially built upon an earlier agricultural settlement going back to the late medieval period. Further research and scientific investigation could determine the chronology of the farmstead remains on the promontory and how they relate to the earlier fort.

The designation selection guidance for scheduled monuments is published in the Historic Environment Scotland Designations Policy and Selection Guidance 2019, Annex 1, pp 9-10, https://www.historicenvironment.scot/designation-policy.  

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

Christison, D. (1895). 'The forts of Selkirk, the Gala Water, the Southern slopes of the Lammermoors, and the north of Roxburgh', in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. 29, 1894-5. Pages: 156-7.

Canmore

https://canmore.org.uk/site/57391/

Source: Historic Environment Scotland