Archaeology Notes

Event ID 712655

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/712655

NT26SW 8 2209 6224

There are eleven ring enclosures (c/f Broughton Knowe - NT03NE 15) on level ground at NT 2209 6224. There appear to be four types: A, B, C, D and L have a central area (possibly raised) enclosed by a bank surrounded by a shallow ditch; E and F are visible as slight banks; G and H as ditches with very slight outer banks, while J and K are very shallow ditches (RCAHMS 1929).

They are all grass-covered and vary from 5.0m to 9.7m in diameter. No entrances are visible. The best preserved is A, where the central area, 3.0m in diameter, is surrounded by a low bank about 2.0m wide with a shallow outer ditch 2.0m wide, the diameter overall being 10.4m. Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (RD) 2 February 1970

(Centred NT 2209 6224) Enclosures (NR) (11 shown)

OS 25" map (1972)

Stevenson, noting only eight enclosures, states that one of the larger ones was partly excavated in 1948. It consisted of a ditch, 32' in overall diameter and 2'6" deep. A narrow ring of stones, resting on the bottom of the ditch and rising to the old ground level, gave the appearance of a rough, flimsy wall. Otherwise, the ditch was filled with soil without silting but with a high-level iron-pan layer. Round the inner lip of the ditch was a shallow bank of clayey soil, and the inner edge of the bank was made irregular by a series of small but very distinct depressions. In the centre of the site was a post hole. To the S of the post hole was an intensely black area of charcoal with fragments of burnt bone too small for precise identification. Over this was a spread of soil in which was embedded an irregular scatter of stones. The only finds were some flint chips.

On this evidence, Stevenson interprets the site as a burial structure. Within the ditch, which had no entrance gap and had been filled deliberately, there had probably been erected a slight wooden wig-wam about 16' in diameter, its base resting against the continuous bank which was designed to hold it (c/f NT03NE 15 and NT26SW 28).

R B K Stevenson 1973