Raeshaw Fell

NT81SW21 8010 1287 to 7877 1255.

(NT 8010 1287 - NT 7877 1255) Earthwork (NR)

OS 6"map, (1962).

Linear Earthwork and Wall, Broad Law to Raeshaw Fell:

Although this work consists of four sections which differ in certain respects, it should be regarded as a single unit, extending in all to a length of 1 mile 7 furlongs.

The first section, 230 yds long, is an earthwork of rather massive proportions, starting on a flat shelf 180 yds ENE of the summit of Broad Law, and mounting the slope. At the bottom the work consists of a bank of earth and small stones, 12' thick and standing 2' high, with a ditch 12' wide and 2' deep on its SW side. In its upper part there is a shallow borrow-ditch as well on what is here the N side. At spot height 1440 the work changes both in character and in direction, taking the form of a drystone wall, well built of coursed masonry and without orthostats. However, due to the manner in which it flanks a rather steeply rising slope, the wall in its present condition appears more as a revetment than as a free-standing construction. Where best preserved it shows seven main courses in a height of 4' of wall-face. The wall runs generally SE, diverging from the modern fence so as to keep below the lip of the slopes descending to Dormount Hope, though cutting off the projecting feature known as The Kip, and ends on the NW side of the head of a narrow transverse gully about 150 yds short of the Border. Rather less than 200 yds NW of this end the wall is pierced by an opening, perhaps originally 6' wide but now widenened by the collapse of the large squared stones that formed its jambs; no track passes through the opening, but a small excavation has been made in the hill-face that rises outside it.

The third section is separated from the second by the gully just mentioned. Bank and ditch construction is here resumed, though as the ditch is on the downhill side it is apt to assume the appearance of a terrace where the slope is pronounced. The terrace sometimes shows a hollow along the base of the bank, and where a true ditch exists it is about 5' wide and up to 1' deep; at one point a borrow-ditch appears above the bank and the whole work is here at least 24' wide. From its point of origin this section runs generally SW for some 700 yds and then W for the same distance, following the irregularities of t the lip of Dormount Hope; it is pierced at two points by the tracks of an old road. The fourth section is again a ditch with a bank on the uphill side, but as the ground is here rising from SE to NW instead of falling from S to N, the positions of bank and ditch are reversed in the two adjoining sections. The bank is separated from the end of the third section, at the head of Dormount Cleuch, by a gap 30 yds wide, formed by the old road and a marshy hollow; the ditch, however, extends into the hollow for some 10 yds, while the gap has evidently been enlarged by traffic on the road. There is little reason to doubt the continuity of sections three and four. The fourth section is about 700 yds long, ending on the steep lip of Scraesburgh Hope. At its NE end the bank is 10' thick and stands 6' above the bottom of the ditch, which is up to 6' wide; these dimensions decrease on the flatter ground, where, however, some traces of a spoil mound can also be seen on the SE side of the ditch. Just short of its SW end the ditch shrinks to a mere notch.

The original purpose of this whole work is obscure.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 1945.

As described above.

Visited by OS(JLD) 1 September 1960.

NT 8008 1377 - NT 7877 1255. An earthwork and wall as described by RCAHMS.

Visited by OS(BS) 1 September 1976.