Field Visit
Date 6 March 1998
Event ID 1130065
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1130065
A chapel, a moated enclosure and adjacent settlement enclosure and several phases of boundary dyke are situated on the haughland on the N of the Hermitage Water. The chapel was mapped but not recorded in any detail on the date of visit.
The moated enclosure (LID96 268) is subsquare on plan and measures 32.8m from E to W by 31m transversely within two banks and a medial ditch. Both stand up to 0.75m in height and are spread to about 4.5m in thickness, while the medial ditch varies from about 2m to 6m in breadth. An outer ditch is visible on the E, W, and N, and on the latter it is accompanied by traces of an upcast outer bank. The entrance is on the W where there is a dip in the crest of the inner bank and a low bank returning around the terminal of the ditch on the N side of the causeway. This return is obliquely aligned on the offset gap in the bank of the neighbouring enclosure on the W, suggesting that this was an intentional entrance arrangement, if not necessarily original. There is no evidence for an entrance in the E of the enclosure, which strongly suggests that in its conception the moated enclosure did not look to the castle. The chapel occupies the NW corner of the enclosure, and has a small burial aisle between it and the 19th century stone wall that encloses the chapel. This wall incorporates a number of architectural fragments from the chapel. Cout o' Keilder's grave is situated on the S edge of the moated enclosure outside the stone wall and comprises a low mound about 3.5m in length from N to S with a flat stone leaning against either end. The orientation, the long mound and the ill-set stones all militate against the likelihood that this is a monument of any great antiquity.
The settlement enclosure on the W of the moated site. It is defined by a stony bank with an external ditch on the N and W, and a less well-defined bank on the E, but there is little sign of any boundary along the river bank on the S side of the enclosure. Internally it measures about 76m from E to W by 38m transversely, and the banks on the N and W are spread to about 4m in thickness and up to 0.7m in height. Some facing-stones are visible in places, suggesting that the banks on the N and W are the remains of a wall. It is divided into two parts by a bank that extends S from the N side and returns to the E just short of the edge of the river bank. Within this eastern compartment there are the partly robbed remains of a stone building, which measures 13.9m from E to W by 4.8m transversely within faced-rubble walls 0.9m in thickness and up to 0.5m in height (LID96 269). In the W compartment there is the remains of a substantial structure with mortared walls, two large fragments of which are visible on its W. The E end has been demolished, but may have been incorporated into the dividing bank between the two compartments. The structure measures at least 20m in length by 11m in breadth overall. This would make a substantial building, such as a barn. Parallels for this type of site are with manorial and moated enclosures, such as those at Muirhouselaw (NT62NW 1) or Timpendean (NT62SW 10), both near Jedburgh.
Four boundary dykes run up to the enclosures, two at the NE of the moated enclosure and two at the NW corner of the settlement. The two at the NE corner approach from the N on a parallel course about 1.5m to 2m apart, each comprising a bank and a ditch. About 55m to the N, the westerly of the two turns E along the bank of the park pale, which leads from the NW corner of the settlement enclosure (NY49NE 3) to Hermitage Castle (NY49NE 5), increasing its height along this sector to almost 1m in height. That to the E stops immediately short of the park pale. The pale approaches the settlement enclosure at a point 15m E of the NW corner, and may well be earlier in date. A second bank, with its ditch on the uphill side, extends W from the same point along the foot of the steep hillside, and encloses an area of about 1ha on the haughland to the W of the settlement. This boundary dyke is cut at its W end by a later ditch (NY 4906 9598).
(LID96 268-9)
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 6 March 1998.
