Archaeology Notes

Event ID 711146

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/711146

NT14NE 8 1625 4700.

(NT 1625 4700) Cultivation Terraces (NR)

OS 6" map (1967)

One of the best known groups of cultivation terraces in Scotland is situated on the west-facing slope that rises steeply from the left bank of the Lyne Water about 1100 yds S of Romanno Bridge. Fourteen terraces are still in good preservation, and a fragment of a fifteenth can be seen at the S end just above the modern road. The road itself has probably destroyed at least one more terrace, and there are traces of yet another on the W side of the road, beyond the N end of the main group.

At the present time the longest terrace measures 460ft but it is evident that the group as a whole is only a portion of what was once a more extensive system which has been saved by the steepness of the ground from obliteration by later cultivation and then framed by plantations as a kind of curiosity. Alexander Gordon records that in his day (1726) the terraces extended "for a whole mile, not unlike a large amphitheatre", but the existence of intervening valleys renders it unlikely that the terraces at Romanno Bridge and Whiteside Hill ever formed part of this system.

The most notable features of the Romanno terraces are the steepness of the risers and the narrowness of the treads, which give them a step-like appearance. They are not however strictly horizontal, tending to rise in the centre and fall towards both ends, nor are their measurements uniform; the treads vary in breadth from 3ft to 10ft, and the risers range from 2ft to 22ft in height. Individual risers also show considerable variation in height from one end to the other, and the southern ends of the sixth and seventh terraces actually converge. Excavation has shown the soil to be a loam with a more sandy subsoil resembling that on the adjacent unterraced hillside.

The name Romanno means the "monks rath", but in the absence of any specific evidence it is not possible to accept Watson's suggestion that the cultivation terraces owe their origin to the canons of Holyrood. RCAHMS 1967, visited 1963

An outstanding group of cultivation terraces.

Visited by OS (JTT) 24 August 1964 and (SFS) 15 October 1974