Description

The monument is a linear earthwork thought to be a territorial boundary or marker dating to the later prehistoric (800 BC – AD 400) and/or early medieval (AD 400 – 1000) periods. It comprises an arrangement of ditches and banks forming a linear feature which runs generally northwest to southeast over a distance of 5km. It survives as a series of earthworks, some visible as obvious upstanding features, while others are far slighter but have been identified by remote sensing (LIDAR). Other sections are buried remains visible only as cropmarks on oblique aerial photographs. The monument survives through woodland policies, cultivated land and hill grazing, between 160m and 310m above sea level.

The scheduled area is irregular. 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 following are excluded from the scheduled monument to allow for their maintenance: the above ground remains of all boundary features including wooden/post and wire fencing, gates, stone dykes; wooden single storey building west southwest of Kippilaw House; transmission poles.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The national importance of the monument is demonstrated in the following way(s) (see Designations Policy and Selection Guidance, Annex 1, para 17): 

a. The monument is of national importance because it makes a significant contribution to our understanding or appreciation of the past, or has the potential to do so, as a form of large linear earthworks dating to the later prehistoric and/or early medieval periods. 

b.   The monument retains structural, architectural, decorative or other physical attributes which make a significant contribution to our understanding or appreciation of the past, forming a long physical boundary between lands to the east and west.  It's form is more complex than the more common, single bank and ditch variants. It uses various configurations of banks and ditches to produce a linear boundary feature. Some of these complex sections may be a result of later adaptation, repurposing the obstacle as a routeway.   

d.   The monument is a particularly good example of a large linear territorial boundary or marker from the late prehistoric and/or early medieval periods. As such, it is an important, relatively uncommon example of its type. 

e.   The monument has research potential which could significantly contribute to our understanding or appreciation of the past. In particular the monument can inform us about the physical expression of territory and identity in the later prehistoric and early medieval periods. 

f.   The monument makes a significant contribution to today's landscape and/or our understanding of the development of the historic landscape by showing how territory was controlled and delineated.

Assessment of Cultural Significance

This statement of national importance has been informed by the following assessment of cultural significance:

Intrinsic characteristics (how the remains of a site or place contribute to our knowledge of the past)

The monument is a complex series of earthwork banks and ditches, of varying configurations, which run for over five kilometres and are thought to be the remains of a significant territorial marker or boundary likely to date from the late prehistoric and/or early medieval periods onwards. The feature runs approximately northwest to southeast, across varying terrain, between the west side of a relatively steep hill (Cauldshiels Hill) at its northwest end and a point south of Kippilaw House at its southeast end. There is no evidence to indicate the locations of the original terminals so the monument may well have originally extended further in both directions or was intended to do so. 

Originally the feature is likely to have consisted of a single bank and ditch, but later reuse means that there is now a variety of configurations. At its southern end the monument is visible as a wide ditch or cutting between two low banks. Moving north, the next visible section is constrained by two linear woodland banks where the boundary feature is visible as a single bank in mature woodland. There is then a discontinuous arrangement of wide ditch between two banks as the boundary continues northwestwards up over a south-facing slope. Several arable fields, roads and modern boundary features then obscure the monument until it becomes visible on a north facing slope, again as a wide ditch between two banks. To the northwest of Holydean, the sequence of earthworks is visible as multiples of parallel ditches and adjacent banks with several sections truncated by later routes cutting across the feature. This more complex arrangement of banks and ditches probably represent later adaptation and reuse, such as new routeways (hollow ways) and as part of woodland enclosure and animal husbandry activities. 

There is significant archaeological potential within the earthworks and buried sections for the survival of structural, artefactual and ecofactual remains. The ditches are also likely to contain important evidence about the wider environmental conditions when the monument was constructed, in use and subsequently abandoned. It has been suggested that where the ditches are located at the west side of the earthworks, this may be evidence of attempts to stop eastwards progress from a western approach.   

The monument can help us understand much about the physical nature of later prehistoric / early medieval boundary features and how these were used to delineate territory. In at least three positions along the length of the monument, there are other contiguous banks and ditches which variously enclose ground or lead off in other directions, however, many of these are likely much later and probably with a different, agricultural function. This added complexity and the wider space relating to these outer earthworks (some of which connect with other features and monuments in the area) indicate a development sequence or reuse. 

The scale of this monument traversing over 5km of land along the western spur of the Eildon hill range demonstrates large-scale control of land, movement and perhaps resources. Sections of the monument appear to have been later repurposed for example for agricultural management and ownership delineation. Finally, the overall survival seen in the field remains underlines the scale and presence of this feature in the landscape, and of the resources required to construct it. 

Contextual characteristics (how a site or place relates to its surroundings and/or to our existing knowledge of the past)

The monument was first recorded in the Old Statistical Account (1795) when it was interpreted as a Roman road. It was described at that time: 'In some places, all vestiges of it are destroyed by the plough; but in other places traces of it are still visible in the form of a large ditch, about 20 feet wide; and in some spots, of two ditches of that width, at a distance of 50 feet'. The Ordnance Survey accepted this interpretation and mapped it as 'Military Road (Remains of)' on the first Edition OS Map of the area (Roxburghshire XIV, Surveyed: 1859, Published: 1863). The monument was later investigated by OGS Crawford (1936) who reinterpreted it as defensive frontier from the post-Roman period. It was surveyed by RCAHMS who generally accepted Crawford's interpretation and suggested that it may have been part of a wider defensive frontier system based on the fort on Eildon Hill. They also noted three other forts which could have been part of the system: Rochester; Cauldshiels Hill and; Blackchester. 

The reasons for the specific positioning of the monument are unclear as it doesn't run between obvious topographic features that could have formed natural terminals. The line of the earthwork does not exploit an obvious land form, although it roughly follows the contours at the west side of Cauldshiels Hill, which has fort on its summit. Further south, its course is to the west of Rowchester Fort and projecting the line of the earthwork further south, it would have run close to Blackchester Fort. The relationship between these forts, Eildon Hill and the linear earthwork is unclear but together may reflect political, economic or administrative control of this region in southern Scotland. 

The monument is part of a dispersed group of over 200 hundred similar boundary features known of and surviving across southern Scotland and the lowlands as well as in areas of northeastern Scotland and the Northern Isles. They range in size, scale date and function. This example is part of a regional cluster known of in southern Scotland, again of differing date and function. This example is rare as a likely example of a territorial boundary or marker, similar to other examples such as the Catrail (scheduled monument reference: SM3466, SM3468, SM3457, SM3413, SM3495, Canmore reference: 86283) and Heriot's Dyke (scheduled monument reference: SM371, Canmore reference: 79782). 

These earthworks lie within a local landscape of prehistoric and early historic exploitation presumed, in at least a broadly contemporary relationship, to co-exist with and in close proximity to - the fort atop Cauldshiels Hill (with evidence from the bronze age onwards - Scheduled Monument reference: SM1725, Canmore references: 55715, 72393); in proximity to the bronze age remains and Roman fort and signal station 5km to the northeast on Eildon Hill (Scheduled Monument reference: SM2107, Canmore references: 55668, 132459); Rowchester fort (Canmore reference: 55446), and Blackchester Fort (Canmore reference: 55398). The monument co-exists within a heavily improved and enclosed landscape with considerable survival of similar earthworks in the area. The wider local area known as Bowden Moor contains a dense network of linear earthworks likely to be later woodland enclosure features (Canmore references: 55714; 55744; 55784; 288198; 341834; 844806).  

Associative characteristics (how a site or place relates to people, events, and/or historic and social movements)

No known associative character. 

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

Historic Environment Scotland http://www.canmore.org.uk reference number CANMORE IDs 55743, 101369, 341835, 368205 (accessed on 15/05/2024). Local Authority HER/SMR Reference 55714, 55744, 101369, 368205 (accessed on 15/05/2024).

Barber, J W, 1999, The linear earthworks of southern Scotland; survey and classification in, Transactions of the Dumfriesshire & Galloway Natural History & Antiquarian Society 73, 63-164

Crawford, O G S, 1936, Defensive Frontier-Dyke near Melrose in, Antiquity, 10, 346-9.

Grigg E, 2015, Early medieval dykes (400 to 850AD). A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the faculty of Humanities. Circulated typescript thesis. University of Manchester. Manchester. Available here -https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/54569299/FULL_TEXT.PDF

Old Statistical Account, 1795, County of Roxburghshire. Volume XVI.

Ordnance Survey, 1863, Roxburghshire sheet XIV. Ordnance Survey.

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland,1956, An inventory of the ancient and historical monuments of Roxburghshire: with the fourteenth report of the Commission. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Edinburgh.

Canmore

https://canmore.org.uk/site/368205/

Source: Historic Environment Scotland