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Archaeology Notes
Event ID 721280
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/721280
NT71SE 49 7708 1211 to 7715 1220
See also NT71SE 21.
(NT 7708 1211 : NT 7715 1220) Earthwork (NR)
OS 6"map, (1962).
The neck that joins Woden Law to Hunthall Hill is crossed at its junction with the former by a linear earthwork consisting of a mound between two ditches. The mound and the SE ditch extend from just above the SW side of Dere Street for 110 yds SW and die out on the steep slope that descends to White Hope. The NW ditch accompanies them throughout, but its NE end has been involved in a wash-out which has also removed the Roman causeway from the underlying rock surface. It is therefore impossible to say whether this ditch originally terminated at the same point as the other components of the earthwork or continued farther towards the edge of the Twise Hope escarpment. The OS map (1923 edition) marks the earthwork as extending a short distance NE of the road, but no trace of this extension can now be seen.
The mound stands to a height of from 4' to 12', the latter being measured above the bottom of the SE ditch where this has diverged downhill on the steep slope. This ditch is 8' wide, while that on the NW or uphill side is normally 5' wide. At two points near the centre the mound has been worn down by relatively modern tracks.
The position of this work below Woden Law strikingly resembles that of NT71SE 21 - 'A', at the other end of the neck, below Hunthall Hill, but the construction of the two is quite different, the former being a bank between two ditches and the latter a ditch between two banks. The features of this earthwork, which are clearly not those of a defensive barrier, are, however, repeated in linear earthwork NT71SE 8, crossing the hollow below Woden Streethead; it may be suggested that both may have the same historical background.
RCAHMS 1956, visited 1938 and 1945.
As described above.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 13 September 1960.
A linear earthwork as described by RCAHMS.
Visited by OS (BS) 7 September 1976.
