Field Visit

Date 11 November 1913

Event ID 1087967

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1087967

RCAHMS County Inventory: East Lothian

Barely a mile to the south of North Berwick is North Berwick Law a conical mass of basalt, rising to a height of 613 feet above sea-level and about 400 feet above the level land adjoining. A great part of its surface is rocky and steep, but towards the south and south-west, near the base, are stretches of gentle grassy slopes with numerous small terraces or benches above, which are faced with rock. Many of these benches seem to have been walled in to form enclosures either for human habitation or for cattle or sheep-folds; others show traces of walls on the ends and lower sides only, and some are slightly excavated on the upper side as well. As they are commanded by the higher ground above, they can not have been for defensive purposes. On the south-western shoulder of the hill, about 100 feet above the road which gives access to the Law, on a moderate grassy slope, are two adjoining rectangular enclosures walled on the ends and along the lower side and slightly excavated on the upper side. The walls have been of stone, but these have nearly disappeared, and the remains are overgrown with grass. They are placed end to end the longer axis running north-west and southeast. The larger enclosure lies to the south-east and measures 33 feet in length by 25 feet in breadth. It is entered by a gap, 6 feet wide, in the south-eastern end. The wall at present shows a width of about 7 feet and rises only a few inches above ground. At the south-western corner a flat stone set on edge seems to indicate the outer face of the wall at this place. A doorway, 4 feet wide, in the north-western end, leads into the smaller enclosure which is 22 feet in length by 15 feet in breadth, the excavated north-eastern side of both enclosures being in line. Several slabs set on edge on the south-western or lower side show the line of the wall. Near the north-western corner a small part of the end wall is exposed and shows several courses of flat stones carefully built. On a higher bench on the southern side of the hill, three roughly circular areas walled with stone, lie close to one another in a line running in an easterly and westerly direction. The most easterly enclosure is some 18 feet in diameter internally, the next is 27 feet in diameter, and the third, which is oval, is 33 feet by 27 feet. On the southern arc of the latter a portion showing both faces of wall near the foundation measures 4 ½ feet in breadth. To the westward, about the same level, is a roughly quadrilateral area, 18 to 20 feet across, enclosed by a setting of seven stones, which vary from 5 feet to I foot 10 inches in length and are set on the long edge. The entrance, 6 feet wide, seems to have been in the eastern wall.

Along the southern base of the Law, between the rocky outcrops and the large quarry that skirts the hill on this side, is a gentle slope covered with a luxuriant growth of grass. Many stone foundations of large and small enclosures can be traced here, and the lower part of the slope is covered with kitchen middens containing very many animal bones and shells of the limpet and whelk (1).

Where the ground has been tirred preparatory to quarrying, great numbers of bones of animals are seen in the face of the cutting. One section above the rock of the quarry shows 18 inches of reddish stony soil covered with a stratum of broken stone 6 inches thick above which is a layer 1 ½ feet at least of dark soil. This intermediate band of stone extends probably 30 or 40 yards east and west, and the question is whether it is a geological formation or a human floor. The stone is the same as in the quarry. Under this floor a number of bones were seen, including the scapula of an animal.

RCAHMS 1924, visited 11 November 1913.

(1) See further Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. vol. xli.(1906-7) pp. 424-30.