Hermitage

NY59NW 21 4997 9601 to 5050 9577

Extends onto map sheet NY49NE.

In the improved pasture between the Green Sike and Hermitage farmsteading, there are a boundary dyke, some field-banks, a lade and some rig. The White Dyke also runs through the middle of the site from N to S (NY49NE 3).

The boundary-dyke may be traced more or less continuously for a distance of 500m from a boggy patch of ground on the E of the Green Sike (NY 4997 9601) in the W, to an unnamed burn in the E (NY 5039 9587), enclosing the low-lying ground on the N of the Hermitage Water. It comprises an earthen bank with a ditch on the upslope side. In the improved pasture between the Green Sike and the farmsteading of Hermitage there are some fragmentary earthen field-banks that are probably the relics of a pre-Improvement field-system (NY 4992 9602 to NY 5015 9593 and NY 5020 9592 5014 9578 as surveyed). Vertical air photographs (All Scotland Survey 643/88 frame no.31, 29 October 1988) show the banks continuing as far Hermitage Farm in the E. What may be a lade taking water to the dam that lies to the N of Hermitage farmsteading (NY 5050 9577), runs along the contour over a distance of 230m through the improved pasture (NY 5026 9591 to NY 5045 9579). Its course is difficult to follow at the E end, where it runs across a small overgrown patch of rig, and at the W end, where it runs out of the improved pasture. Rig is only visible in a small field immediately NW of Hermitage farmsteading.

Visited by RCAHMS (PJD), 18 April 1996.