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Fingland Burn
Ring Enclosure(S) (Post Medieval)
Site Name Fingland Burn
Classification Ring Enclosure(S) (Post Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Romanno Hope
Canmore ID 49961
Site Number NT14NE 21
NGR NT 18550 46713
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/49961
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Newlands
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Tweeddale
- Former County Peebles-shire
NT14NE 21 1852 4670.
At the foot of the W slopes of Green Knowe there are two ring enclosures which, together with the barrow (NT14NE 37) form a compact group overlooking the left bank of the Fingland Burn from a height of 920ft OD. Excavations showed that each enclosure measured 30ft in diameter within an earthen bank 22ft in thickness and 2ft in maximum height. Complete excavation of the central area of the E enclosure proved that there was no entrance, but yielded no structural features or relics. RCAHMS 1967, visited August 1963
The two enclosures are as described. In view of the excavation report it seems likely that neither is an antiquity and both are probably old sheepfolds of which there are many examples in the area.
Visited by OS 9 January 1975.
Field Visit (5 March 2024)
wo circular ring-banks are situated on a terrace to the E of the Fingland Burn and at the foot of the W flank of Green Knowe. Both measure about 10m in diameter within a turf bank about 2.5m across and up to 0.5m in height. There are intermittent traces of a groove in the crest of the bank of the western ring-bank. This feature has been shown elsewhere to form where the turves forming the upper courses of the inner and outer cheeks of a turf dyke collapse inwards as the basal courses spread outwards (Canmore ID: 124302). Extending outwards from the banks for about 2.5m there is a turf-stripping scar, which is most clearly visible around the western on visualisations derived from Airborne Laser Scanning data (Scottish Public Sector LiDAR (Phase 3)) but is less evident on the ground due to the tussocky ground cover and patchy bracken. The visualisations also indicate that the turf-stripping scars cut across the surface of poorly defined rig and furrow. The location and morphological character of the enclosures, and the clear evidence of turf-stripping scars, are consistent features of turf sheepfolds, while the stratigraphic relationship to the rig indicates a post-medieval date.
On the terrace to the W of the western sheepfold is a low bank roughly describing an L-shape on plan, but with a gap at its angle, and a second bank that extends from the track immediately W of the angle as far as the terrace edge above the Fingland Burn. Again, flanked by turf-stripping scars, these are probably sheep shelters, though whether they are directly associated with either of the ring-banks, or more probably earlier, is unknown.
Visited by HES Archaeological Survey (D. Cowley) and Designations (A. Fulton, A. Rutherford), 5 March 2024
Sbc Note
Visibility: This site has been excavated.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
