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Field Visit
Date May 1951
Event ID 1122748
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1122748
NT33NW 324 367. On Caerlee Hill, half a mile W of Innerleithen and at a height of 850ft OD, there is a settlement contained within an annexe. A modern boundary-dyke crosses the site from the N to S and is joined by another coming from the SE. Originally to settlement measured internally about 200' by 150', but the E portion, which was situated in the angle between the two dykes, has been obliterated by quarrying in recent times. In the remaining portion the settlement wall (A) is now represented for the most part by a low stony scarp which exhibits no facing-stones. There is an entrance measuring 10' in width on the NW, and the interior contains six house-platforms (1-6) varying between 28' and 20' across. A circular enclosure (7), measuring 30' in diameter within a low stony bank 4' in width, impinges upon house-platform 2; although no entrance is apparent, it probably represents an intrusive stone-walled house (see RCAHMS 1967, 29).
The annexe is bounded by a bank (B), formed from material derived from an internal quarry-ditch. Except on the W, where it has been reduced to a mere scarp, the bank rises to a height of 4' and measures some 15' in width. On the N the bank is accompanied for a distance of 160' by a shallow external ditch with a low upcast-bank (C) along the W stretch of the outer lip. The entrance, on the NW, has been widened by a modern track.
Excavations carried out in the 19th century somewhere in the part of the settlement that lies to the W of the boundary dykes revealed "several bronze bracelets", one of which was of penannular form with expanded terminals (Chambers 1864, 22 and fig.5). It is not known where these objects now are.
RCAHMS 1967, visited May 1951
