Threave House, Kitchen Garden

NX 7529 6041 An archaeological baseline survey was undertaken by Kirkdale Archaeology on the National Trust for Scotland Threave Estate in June 1997. The vast majority of archaeology recorded in the survey could be dated to the past two centuries, characterised by the intensive use of the area for cattle raising, and by low-level industrial archaeology and communications routes. The few traces of pre-industrial/pre-improvement archaeology included the possible prehistoric settlement site on top of Meikle Wood Hill, the find of a potentially pre-Iron Age saddle quern in a water feature, the site described as a 'native' settlement enclosure on Lodge Island, and potentially the few instances of rig and furrow recorded near to the farms. By far the most commonly encountered sites were theremains of field boundaries, recorded where they either underlay more modem boundaries, or where they followed a different line from the modern boundary- The historically documented Leveller's Revolt of the early 18th century, after which most of the enclosures were erected, gives a terminus post quern for this element of the Threave landscape, and the very close correlation between the 1st edition OS map, surveyed in 1848-9, and the modern pattern of enclosure indicates the success and relative permanence of this late 18th and 19th-century landscape.

G Ewart and A Dunn 1997

Sponsor: Historic Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland

Kirkdale Archaeology