Field Visit

Date September 1959

Event ID 709977

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/709977

RCAHMS Inventory: Peeblesshire

NT11NW 3 116 156.

NT 116 156: Farmsteads, Fruid Water. This group of remains is situated near the head of the Fruid Water at a height of about 1500ft. It comprises some seven or eight sub-rectangular buildings standing upon islands and promontories formed by meanders of the burn, together with traces of associated enclosures which occupy the adjacent hill-side on the NE. The buildings are now reduced to their lowest courses, which are of dry-stone masonry; the upper parts of the walls may have been of turf. Two of the buildings appear to have three walls only, one of the gable ends being open in each case. Most take advantage of the natural shelter afforded by hollows and banks into which the lowest courses of their walls have been set. The majority of the buildings appear to have comprised a single apartment, but the best preserved one, which stands on the SW side of the burn at the upper end of the settlement, comprises two parallel apartments, one opening to the NW and the other to the SE; it measures 41ft by 27ft overall. The remaining buildings vary in size from 37ft by 15ft overall to 17ft by 11 ft overall, the walls having a thickness of about 4ft at the base.

On the lower slopes of the hill-side to the NE there are traces of walled enclosures one of them incorporating what appears to be a relatively modern rectangular enclosure for sheep.

The age of these remains is not known, nor is it certain whether or not some of the buildings were occupied as dwelling-houses. The altitude at which the buildings lie, and their association with enclosures, suggest, however, that the settlement may possibly have been utilised in connection with the summer pasturing of sheep.

RCAHMS 1967, visited September 1959.