Ewe Knowes
Boundary Dyke(S) (Medieval) - (Post Medieval), Enclosure(S) (Medieval) - (Post Medieval), Township (Medieval) - (Post Medieval)
Site Name Ewe Knowes
Classification Boundary Dyke(S) (Medieval) - (Post Medieval), Enclosure(S) (Medieval) - (Post Medieval), Township (Medieval) - (Post Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Over Foulshiels
Canmore ID 162074
Site Number NY49SE 25
NGR NY 4880 9206
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/162074
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Castleton
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Roxburgh
- Former County Roxburghshire
Field Visit (26 March 1996)
NY49SE 25 4880 9206
A township, a boundary dyke, a field and some enclosures lie on the N flank of Ewe Knowes.
The township comprises seven or possibly eight buildings scattered across two terraces on the NE flank of Ewe Knowes over a distance of about 200m. The buildings are aligned NE and SW and range in size from 5.5m to 14.2m in length by between 2.4m and 4.5m in breadth internally. The walls are of turf, or of turf on stone footings, and measure 1.7m in thickness and up to 0.3m in height. One of the buildings (LID96 217) has a midden heap beside it and three have depressions at one end of the interior, probably indicating the presence of a byre-drain (LID96 217, 220-1); another has a drain around its upper end (LID96 222).
An earthen field-bank with an external ditch, which surrounds the modern wire-fenced field to the SE of the township, has cut away the side of one of the buildings (LID96 216), and, therefore, may be of later date than the buildings. However, there are also traces of another, earlier phase, of dyke along the W side of the field, and an earthen dyke can be seen that leads from the N end of the field in a sinuous course through the buildings and downhill towards the Hartsgarth Burn (NY 4884 9208 to NY 4888 9222). An earthen-banked field and two enclosures lie on the NNE of the modern field (NY 4896 9210).
This settlement which is otherwise undocumented, may be that called Over Foulshiels on Blaeu's atlas to the N of Greenshiels (1654).
(LID96 215-222)
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 26 March 1996
J Blaeu 1654
