Note
Date 15 August 2015 - 19 October 2016
Event ID 1045098
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1045098
A complex fortification encloses the summit and upper slopes of Rubers Law, a rugged and distinctive landmark between Jedburgh and Hawick. The principal remains can be divided into two elements; a citadel enclosure on the summit, with an annexe taking in a terrace and a rocky ridge on the SE; and a large outer enclosure contouring along natural terraces lower down the slope. The citadel is enclosed by what has been a substantial wall extending round the craggy lip of the summit and measures internally about 72m from ENE to WSW by a maximum of 32m transversely (0.18ha). There is a well-defined entrance at the ENE end, and a possible second at the W end of the SE side, from which a path drops obliquely down the slope into the annexe; the wall at the WSW end is also pierced by a narrow cleft in the rock face known as Peden's Pulpit, but RCAHMS investigators in 1949 did not think this provide a practicable route to the summit. Apart from a mound towards the ENE end of the grassy hollow between the rock outcrops forming the summit area, the interior is featureless; Alexander Curle dug into this mound and beneath a deep layer of soil found a loose heap of stones which he believed was the remains of a rampart, and he also found what he described as a well-defined hut-circle elsewhere (Curle 1907). The wall of the annexe springs from the foot of the summit on the SW and swings round the leading edge of a terrace and along the flank of a rocky ridge to return across a gully at the foot of the summit on the SE. Internally it measures about 90m from ENE to WSW by between 80m and 35m transversely (0.5ha). Its wall is largely reduced to a stony scarp, but where it crosses the gully on the E it forms a mound of rubble about 7m in thickness by 0.6m in height and the massive surviving facing-stones indicate an original thickness in the order of 3.6m; another row of upright stones can be seen 9m in front of the wall in this sector. An entrance on the SW is approached by a hollowed trackway. A notable feature of the walls of both the citadel and the annexe is that they incorporate dressed sandstone blocks which almost certainly derive from a Roman structure, speculated to have been a watchtower on the summit. Several other fragments of walling can be seen to the N of the citadel, which are possibly the remains of outworks controlling access up to the entrance on the ENE. Lower down the slope, however, there are the remains of a heavily ruined rampart contouring round the slope on all sides except the E, essentially following natural terraces and shoulders to form an enclosure of about 3.7ha; an entrance on the S is approached by a hollowed trackway mounting the slope obliquely to expose the visitor's left side, while other entrances possibly utilise two natural gullies on the N .
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 19 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3282
