RCAHMS Afforestable Land Survey, Southdean

Date February 1991 - December 1992

Event ID 550868

Category Project

Type Project

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/550868

RCAHMS Afforestable Land Survey Programme

The survey of Southdean has provided the Commission with the opportunity to assess what evidence there might be for a medieval phase of colonisation and retreat in the uplands of south-east Scotland, a phase which has been proposed elsewhere in the south-east of Scotland (Parry 1975), as well as on the English side of the Cheviots (Dixon 1985). In the course of the survey, two phases of colonisation and retreat were identified: a 16th- to 18th-century phase, which is confirmed by cartographic and documentary sources, and an earlier, and hitherto poorly-defined, phase, probably belonging to the 12th to 15th centuries, which is represented by sites now largely confined to the higher margins and is characterised by distinctive types of settlement remains.

The area covered by this survey, a little under 15sq. km, embraces a portion of the upper reaches of the Jed Water lying immediately north of the border with England and to the west of Carter Bar. The underlying geology comprises sedimentary rocks of Upper Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous ages, as well as intrusive and extrusive igneous facies associated with the Cheviot Massif, which lies to the east. Limestone from the Carboniferous Series has been quarried for lime, and, along the Carter Burn, outcropping Old Red Sandstone has been exploited for building stone, while the whinstone from Southdean Law has been used for road metal. The land rises from an altitude of 150m along the Jed Water to 415m near Carter Bar, with the upper part of this height range imposing severe climatic limitations on the extent of cultivable land. Indeed, modern arable or improved pasture is largely confined to the gentle, lower slopes of Southdean Law as well as to smaller areas along the Jordan Sike and around Lethem, and the greater part of the land is used for rough pasture or forestry.

The survey area lies in the parishes of Southdean and the outlying part of Jedburgh, both of which march on their south sides with the English border. In this sector the border is both a physical and political divide, as it follows the watershed of the Cheviot Massif, and Southdean's position immediately adjacent to the border has had a profound effect on its medieval settlement history. Furthermore, its incorporation in the Royal Forest of Jedburgh, a medieval hunting reserve, has given rise to particular features of land-use not found elsewhere in the Cheviots. In common with some other parts of the Border counties, the Southdean area has been extensively afforested since the Second World War. This has taken its toll on the relict archaeological landscapes, including the important prehistoric settlement and field-system at Tamshiel Rig, which lies immediately south of the survey area (RCAHMS 1956, 426-7). Despite this, a well-preserved medieval and later landscape was still extant in 1991, when the area was selected for survey by the Afforestable Land Survey (ALS). Although monuments of all periods up to the last century were included in the survey, such was the quality of the late medieval remains that analysis has been concentrated on the medieval and post-medieval landscape.

Initially, an area about 8km in length by up to 2.5km in breadth was selected for survey on the basis of the available 1 :2500 OS vertical air photographs; this area was subsequently adjusted to take in a larger tract of country. For the greater part of the area, map overlays for field-checking at a scale of 1:2500 were prepared by transcribing archaeological detail from the OS air photographs, using the standard process of best-fitting the archaeological features to the map. Where no 1 :2500 map existed, the relevant 1: 10,000 1 km square was enlarged; in order to limit transcription errors, an EDM was used to provide ground control. The remainder of the area was recorded at the base-scale of 1: 10,000, as the paucity of archaeological remains did not justify more detailed treatment. As on Waternish, Skye (RCAHMS 1993a) aerial photograph transcription was carried out for areas which had already been afforested, in order to record the context of the surviving remains (e.g. White Hill NT60NE 1).The field-survey was undertaken by a team of two fieldworkers (an Investigator and a Surveyor), and was carried out on an intermittent basis between February 1991 and May 1992, with a final check of some sites in December 1992. Features were recorded in standard ALS style (RCAHMS I 993a, 5);EDM ground survey was used to supplement the areas not covered by the 1 :2500 air photographs and to add detail not visible on the aerial photographs.

This report was written by Dr P J Dixon, and was edited by Mr J B Stevenson and Mr G S Maxwell. It was based on fieldwork carried out by Dr P J Dixon, with survey and drawing work by Ms G Brown, Miss H L Graham, Mrs J Green, and Mr R Shaw, and record work by Mr P McKeague. The photographs were taken by Mr R Adam, with in-house services provided by the Photographic Department. The layout of this publication was prepared by Mr J N Stevenson and Miss E Gilfeather. The Afforestable Land Survey was established in 1989 to carry out archaeological survey in areas where there is likely to be new planting, and it works on the basis of a rolling programme which has been the subject of consultation and agreement each year between RCAHMS and Historic Scotland, with the advice of the Forestry Commission and Regional Archaeologists. The Royal Commission wishes to acknowledge the assistance given by landowners who have allowed access to the monuments for study and survey, and to thank Professor D W Harding for permission to reproduce Fig. 3. Detailed information, including plans and photographs, about sites mentioned in the text and listed in the Gazetteer is available in the [National Record of the Historic Environment].

Text taken from Southdean, An Archaeological Survey (RCAHMS 1994), also available as a pdf (WP 003946). Archive from the project includes a dxf file containing the linework (GV 007622), and a structures database (DX 001417).