Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016243
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016243
After Eildon Hill North, Ruberslaw is the most prominent hill in Roxburghshire-isolated, imposing and with fine views to the Cheviots, the Eildons, the Lammermuirs, the hills of Selkirk shire and Liddesdale. Nearly 427m high, its igneous summit is crowned with a fortified settlement, supplanted by a later enclosure. This later, single stone wall encircling only the actual summit has an annexe to the south; it incorporates dressed stones sometimes suggested as Roman because of their diamond-shaped chiselling and re-used when the site was reoccupied by a British community, perhaps in the 4th or 5th century AD.
These structures make considerable use of rocky outcrops as an integral part of their defences; the earlier wall or rampart, by contrast, follows a roughly even course around the hill, well below the summit, enclosing nearly 3 ha in all. It is of boulder-faced rubble build, though over 100m is lost on the east side. There is a well-marked entrance on the south side, approached by a hollow track; two other possible entrances on the north make use of natural gullies.
This then is a pre-Roman hillfort large enough to be one of the minor centres of the Selgovae whose capital was probably on Eildon Hill North (no. 84). About 4km south-south-west, Bonchester Hill fort (NT 594117) shows a similar history.
South of Ruberslaw and west of Bonchester Bridge, either side of the A 6088, there are wide expanses of old cultivation rigs. Fairly straight, low and roughly parallel, they are unlikely to be much older than around AD 1800. Their survival is an indication of the retreat of arable cultivation from some of the higher lands; it also well illustrates the pre-improvement pattern of ridge and furrow cultivation-a necessary form of natural drainage as well as a basic working unit.
Information from 'Exploring Scotland's Heritage: Lothian and Borders', (1985).
