Description

The site comprises a circular ringwork thought to be the remains of a sheep fold. The remains are visible as a low, turf-covered circular feature enclosing a circular space in which a low central mound or tump is present. It is located in a clearing within a mature conifer wood, on a south facing slope, at approximately 310m above sea level. 

The earthwork has previously been recorded as about 10m in overall diameter and surviving to a height of approximately 0.3m. The ring has been described as a stony bank and the central mound described comprising earth and stone at about 3m in diameter and 0.3m high. 

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

Intrinsic Characteristics 

The area around the monument is noted on historic Ordnance Survey mapping as having 'Sheep Shelters' and a 'Sheep Ree'. The monument was recorded with archaeological information in 1959 when surveyors interpreted the remains as a possible hut circle, with an uninterrupted ringwork and as part of a local cluster of similar remains. The classification for this example was subsequently changed to a possible burial monument and this was later refined to enclosed cremation cemetery. Recent research into a group of sites with similar field characteristics suggest this example is likely to be a form of post-medieval sheepfold.  

The turf used in its construction has evidently been taken from strips to either side of the bank, leaving a tump of uncut turf in the centre of the fold. These characteristics are evident in the field and in LiDAR data, and are typical of turf-built sheepfolds.  Stone in the ring bank may be the remains of a basal course. 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 sheepfold) is a component of a wider hill farming system, exploiting upland pasture in upper Annandale and only partly representative of post-medieval agricultural activity taking 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. 

The wider area to the south of the monument has been partially investigated by archaeological excavation and the results indicate a variety of remains, suggesting exploitation of land and resources here from prehistory onwards. The proximity of these remains and similarity in the form of some of them is interesting and illustrative of the density of activity over a long period. 

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, turf and stone construction with limited archaeological potential in the buried soil layers. The presence of a central mound is interesting but it 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 and stone 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 a component of a wider agricultural system, the monument does not a significantly contribution to today's landscape or our understanding of the historic landscape. The proximity of remains which span prehistoric and historic periods of use here is also interesting, but deemed insufficient to raise contextual character.      

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

National Record of the Historic Environment (NHRE) ID 385700 https://www.trove.scot/place/385700 (accessed on 11/09/2025).

Bradford, B., Connolly, D., Hawker-Yates, L., Kdolska, H., Paice, C., Scott, G., & Wiseman, R. (2020). Archaeology on Furlough: Sheepfolds of the Lammermuirs. Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.60154.

Downes J, 1993 Fall Kneesend (Crawford parish): cairnfield in, Discovery Excav Scot. 89

Downes J, 2001, The Investigation of a Bronze Age Cairnfield and Later Buildings at Fall Kneesend, Clydesdale in, Scot Archaeol J 23, 1, 2001, 33

Duncan JS and Halliday S, 1997, Paddy's Rickle Bridge to Johnstonebridge (Crawford parish), watching brief in, Discovery Excav Scot. 75-76

RCAHMS, 1978, The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Lanarkshire: an inventory of the prehistoric and Roman monuments. Edinburgh. 54, 56

Ward T, 1991, Survey: A74 and M74 road development routes in, Discovery Excav Scot, 65.

Ward T, 1992, Upper Clydesdale through the ages: the M74 project (archaeology): the Clydesdale experience. 198-200, 92.

Ward T, 1993f, Fall Kneesend (Crawford parish): cairns/structures/Roman road in, Discovery Excav Scot. 89.

Ward T, 1994, Fall Kneesend (Crawford parish): cairn/cremation burial in, Discovery Excav Scot. 73.

Ward T, 1995, Fall Kneesend (Crawford parish), find-spot in, Discovery Excav Scot.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland