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Field Visit
Date 28 August 2019
Event ID 1087980
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1087980
Two oval, probably prehistoric, barrows are situated on the level summit of a ridge about 550m SE of Romanno Mains farmstead and about 30m W of an old field boundary, at a height of 345m OD. The larger of the two (NT 17529 47975), which is situated at the SW end of the ridge, is a grass-grown mound with a slight depression in the top. It measures at least 7.9m from NE to SW by 7.5m transversely and about 0.3m in height. A modern pit encroaches slightly on the SE.
Lying some 26m to the NE, the second barrow (NT 17549 48003) is obscured by grass and rush growth. It measures about 7.2m from NE to SW by 6.3m transversely, but only 0.1m in height, and is surrounded by a barely perceptible ditch, 1m in breadth, and visible in part only as a vegetation mark.
Both barrows may have been reduced by cultivation and there are traces of post-medieval rig-and-furrow (orientated from NE to SW) in the surrounding area. The 1st edition of the Ordnance Survey 25-inch map (Peebles-shire 1857, Sheet VIII.3) depicts mixed woodland here, perhaps contributing to the preservation of these features, which might otherwise have been ploughed out. On the date of visit a circular cattle feeder stood between the two barrows, and traces of other feeder stances were visible nearby.
When first noted by RCAHMS in May 1962 (RCAHMS 1967, No. 55 (i)), both barrows were recorded as having a ditch. The mounds formed two of more than 40 then recorded in Peeblesshire (ibid, 15, 51-60), some of the best preserved of which, including examples with ditches and external banks, survive on Langlaw Hill (ibid No. 36; NT03NE 19).
Visited by HES Survey and Recording (GFG, ATW) and S P Halliday 28 August 2019.
