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Archaeology Notes

Event ID 713692

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/713692

NT31SW 5 3178 1277.

(NT 3178 1274) A ring of haebures is shown at this point.

OS 6" map (1900)

Motte, Phenzhopehaugh. Where the Phenzhopehaugh Burn debouches into the valley of the Rankle Burn an area of level ground flanks the left bank of the latter stream.

The motte is situated on this haughland 200 yds. from the bank of the Rankle Burn and 135 yds. NW. of the shepherd's house. It's elevation is 910ft OD. In its construction a natural knoll has been trimmed to form an oval platform, the undulating surface of which measures 125ft from NE to SW by 85ft transversely. A ditch 20ft in width runs round the base of the mound. The structure is best preserved on the NNE., where the ditch is 1ft 6in in depth and the mound is 8ft 3in in height. There is a causeway 20ft wide in the SW. arc of the ditch. Fragments of a slight stony bank, perhaps secondary to the main structure, lie on the rim of the mound.

The motte is within the territory of Buccleuch, formerly known as Rankilburn. Richard le Scot of Rankilburn and Murthockston, the first member of this family of whom there is definite record, appears among the Scottish barons who swore fealty to Edward I of England in 1296, being styled in the Homage Roll as "of Murthoxton ... in the county of Lanark' (J B Paul 1905), but in addition to his Lanarkshire property he must have held lands in Selkirkshire, as these were restored to him in September 1296. (J Bain 1884) He is said to have died in about 1320. (W Fraser 1878) A circular earthen-walled enclosure 85 ft. in diameter lies 50 ft. S. of the motte. It is probably of more recent construction.

RCAHMS 1957, visited 1950

NT 3181 1276 The remains of this motte are as described by RCAHMS. Some 60m S of the motte is a large oval enclosure, c.31m E-W by c.26m N-S, formed by a bank of earth and stone c.4.0m wide with a maximum height of c.1.0m: there is a possible entrance in the NE side. This is presumably the enclosure recorded by the Commission, despite the discrepancies in the measurements, and, as they suggest, is probably a more recent stock enclosure.

Resurveyed at 1/10,560.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 11 July 1962

A motte a previously described.

Visited by RCAHMS (SH) April 1985

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References