Stonebyres Wood
Dam (Period Unassigned), Plantation Dyke (Period Unassigned), Rig And Furrow (Medieval), Track (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Stonebyres Wood
Classification Dam (Period Unassigned), Plantation Dyke (Period Unassigned), Rig And Furrow (Medieval), Track (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 43742
Site Number NS54NE 24
NGR NS 593 493
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/43742
- Council East Renfrewshire
- Parish Eaglesham
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Eastwood
- Former County Renfrewshire
NS54NE 24 593 493.
A large fortified natural mound with a flat top of several acres.
Hollow track about 10' wide approaches from NS 593 496, entering site at NW corner. A bank and at an interval of 15' a ditch 8' across and 5' deep flank this part. Main section of ditch 330' long, overal length 600'. A dam, 5' high, about 8' broad at base and 6' on top, of rubble (now breached), would have formed a lake of up to 50' across on S side and 15' on W, with an earth causeway at the entrance.
T C Welsh and C I Macfarlane 1968; T C Welsh 1970.
Stonebyres Wood occupies a large natural knoll that is not fortified as suggested in a previous report, but is enclosed around its foot by a plantation bank and external ditch, probably of late 18th century date. A hollowed trackway traverses the foot of the W flank of the knoll in a NW to SE direction, and most of the E half of the knoll is blanketed by broad rig-and-furrow. A small breached dam (NS 59542 49231), which is situated on an un-named stream immediately SE of the wood, probably served Stonebyres Farm (NS 597 494), some 250m to the NE, but there are no visible remains of a lade and the dam is not depicted on either the 1st or 2nd editions of the OS 6-inch map (Renfrewshire 1863, sheet XIX; 1899, sheet XIX.NE).
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) 24 October 2007.