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Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016246
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016246
Glenrath, the 'valley of the settlement', was formerly the route of an important drove road over to the Douglas Water. The hills around Glenrath are steep with screes, and snow can lie low well into March. For about 1.5km along the northern side of the valley bottom, facing south, are plentiful traces of human settlement-some 14 ha in all. The land is criss-crossed with old dykes, field systems and traces of habitation.
The settlements lie immediately below the screes and above the cultivated ground. They are essentially the ruinous clusters of circular houses, together with small enclosures which do not appear to conform to any set pattern. The most extensive ruins are found east of the plantation; and at 'A' consist of three courts (now partly buried by falling scree), with circular houses up to 6m diameter bonded into their enclosing walls. The only find during excavations at 'B' was a single ornamented spindle whorl.
In association with the settlements is a field system which consists partly of stony banks, presumably once dykes, running down the slope; and partly of lynchets (steep banks below pieces of cultivated ground) often topped with ruinous dykes and running along the contour. There are many clearance cairns (of stones removed from the soil during cultivation) both within the fields and on the banks; there are also a number of isolated, circular structures, apparently similar to those in the settlement and dug very clearly into the slope.
Where reasonably complete fields survive, they were clearly not larger than 0.2 ha-longer than wide in a ratio of 2.5:1. These are the so-called 'Celtic' square fields. Similar, though badly-damaged systems can be identified at Dreva (no. 87) and a fragment at Stanhope (NT 147280)-all of them in narrow locations, with limited areas of cultivable land. At Tamshiel Rig, by contrast, (NT 643062), 'Celtic' long fields are in evidence-much less common in Scotland.
Information from 'Exploring Scotland's Heritage: Lothian and Borders', (1985).
