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Gotterbie Moor,homestead moat

A Scheduled Monument in Annandale North, Dumfries and Galloway

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Coordinates

Latitude: 55.1588 / 55°9'31"N

Longitude: -3.422 / 3°25'19"W

OS Eastings: 309493

OS Northings: 585867

OS Grid: NY094858

Mapcode National: GBR 48JS.YH

Mapcode Global: WH6XC.DLPJ

Entry Name: Gotterbie Moor,homestead moat

Scheduled Date: 14 May 1993

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Source ID: SM5689

Schedule Class: Cultural

Category: Secular: homestead moat

Location: Lochmaben

County: Dumfries and Galloway

Electoral Ward: Annandale North

Traditional County: Dumfriesshire

Description

The monument comprises a well-preserved homestead moat of medieval date surviving as an internal enclosure, surrounded by a broad ditch and external bank.

The internal enclosure is rectangular in shape, measuring

approximately 38m NW-SE by 35m NE-SW and is defined by an earth and stone bank with boulder footings. This bank survives to approximately 1m in height above the interior around most of the enclosure. Surrounding this internal enclosure is the "moat", formed by a flat- bottomed ditch up to 4m in width. External to the ditch is a further bank of slighter, earthen construction visible most clearly along the south-eastern side of the enclosure. The entrance to the internal enclosure also lies on the south-eastern side and is defined by a break in the ditch, lined by short stretches of bank which join the inner and outer enclosure banks.

The area to be scheduled encompasses all visible traces of the monument together with an area around it in which traces of associated activities may be preserved. The latter area includes a small area of former quarrying, south of the monument, which may relate to the construction of the bank. The area is of irregular shape measuring a maximum of 180m NW-SE by 110m NE-SW, as marked in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance because of its potential to add to our understanding of high status, medieval rural settlement. The high degree of preservation of the structural elements of the enclosure provides the potential to investigate the methods of construction employed. The ditch is likely to have been waterlogged, since its original excavation and there is therefore a high probability that it will contain waterlogged, organic material contemporary with the occupation of the site. Such material would be of great significance to the interpretation of the economy and environment of the site. The apparently undisturbed interior has the potential to yield important structural remains and artefactual material relating to the occupation of the site.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NY08NE 6.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

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