Archaeology Notes

Event ID 720312

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/720312

NT63SE 6 6669 3118.

(Centre: NT 6668 3117) Ringley Hall (Fort) (NR).

OS 6"map, Roxburghshire, (1924).

Fort, Ringleyhall:

This fort (RCAHMS 1956, plan, fig.325) is situated three-quarters of a mile ENE of Rutherford Station, occupying a slight knoll which rises to an elevation of 200ft OD between the main road from Melrose to Kelso and the edge of a precipitous cliff, some 80ft high, which here overlooks the River Tweed from the S. It is enclosed within a plantation and has been partially destroyed by landslips on the N side, and by quarrying, cultivation, and road- making on the E and SE; but the surviving remains are still impressive and have often been described. The most detailed descriptions are those of Jeffrey (A Jeffrey 1864) and Christison. (D Christison 1895).

At the present time the fortifications comprise an inner rampart, horseshoe-shaped on plan, with its ends resting on the cliff-edge, and two outer ramparts, concentric with the first but only traceable from the edge of the cliff on the W side of the fort as far as the SE angle, beyond which point they have been obliterated by one or other of the agencies referred to above. Although Christison describes the fort as being of the "semicircular type", a highly conventionalised print of the monument made in 1776, (A Jeffrey 1864), before the site was planted, shows the inner rampart as a complete circle and suggests that the medial and outer ramparts were likewise continuous. By 1858 the two latter ramparts had been destroyed on the N side, but it appears from the OS 6-inch map of that year, and also from Jeffrey's account which was written at about the same time, that the inner rampart was then still intact. Its complete erosion on the cliff side must, therefore, have occurred between 1858 and 1895, when Christison's plan was published; and to judge by this plan no further deterioration has subsequently taken place.

The fort is easily approachable, across level or only slightly inclined ground, from all directions except the N; hence the choice of site appears to have been determined primarily by the local tactical advantage offered by the knoll whose flat top, originally some 200ft in diameter, is from 12ft to 20ft above its base. All three ramparts are now simply heaped rubble banks, but the print of 1776 shows that the external faces, at least, of all of them were then revetted with masonry; and although Jeffrey's account suggests that the facings of the inner and medial ramparts had been robbed before his time, he explicitly states that the outer rampart was composed of "dry stones". At present the inner rampart enclosing the top of the knoll measures up to 6ft in height above the interior and up to 11ft 6in above the terrace, from 20ft to 30ft in width, that separated it from the medial rampart. The medial and outer ramparts, which are separated by a similar terrace averaging 20ft in width, are now only represented by scarps on the W side but still exhibit slight banks on the S. Where best preserved, the medial bank stands 2ft high above the inner terrace and 6ft high above the outer one, while the outer bank, situated at the foot of the knoll, is 2ft high above the outer terrace and 1ft 6in higher than the exterior ground-surface. Christison was misled by the present appearance of the site into suggesting that it was possibly a terraced motte; but in fact the terraces are obviously ditches which have been largely silted up, while the outer terrace on the S side still retains traces of the scarp and counter-scarp of the ditch. The conclusion that ditches once existed is further made necessary by the large amount of small broken stones capping the rubble core of the ramparts, which can only have been obtained by quarrying into the subsoil. The entrance to the fort is on the SE, where there is a gap 20ft wide in the inner rampart. Although the interior is now featureless, the print of 1776 shows the foundations of a rectangular structure which is probably the same as that described by Jeffrey as a "stone building of about 40 feet square" lying on the "south-west side of the upper circle". Whatever the purpose of this building may have been, its shape and size suggest that it was a secondary construction.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 16 May 1939.

The remains of this fort are as described above. The plantation has now been almost completely cut down and the fort's remains have suffered damage in places due to timber-felling operations.

Revised at 1/2500.

Visited by OS(WDJ) 13 September 1962.