Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Lady Blair Plantation
Settlement (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Lady Blair Plantation
Classification Settlement (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 51243
Site Number NT23NE 15
NGR NT 2594 3720
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/51243
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Peebles
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Tweeddale
- Former County Peebles-shire
NT23NE 15 2594 3720.
(NT 2594 3720) Fort (NR)
OS 6" map (1965)
Settlement, Lady Blair Plantation. A settlement enclosed within an annexe is situated a little over half a mile S of Haystoun, and at a height of 1100' OD, on the N end of a prominent ridge which projects NNE from Preston Law. The N end and the flanks of the spur are very steep, but from the S the site is easily accessible across a small saddle.
The settlement measures 170' by 100' within a ruined wall (A on plan) represented now by a stony grass-covered scarp measuring up to 3' 6" in height; no facing-stones are visible. Of the two gaps in the wall, at the N and SSW ends respectively, the former, 8' in width, is an original entrance, whereas the latter appears to be merely a modern breach. Within the interior, three penannular scooped platforms, measuring between 25' and 30' in diameter, mark the sites of timber houses.
The annexe is bounded by a single wall (B) which is also largely reduced to a stony scarp. It surrounds the settlement at a distance of between 25' and 55' and has an entrance, now enlarged to a width of 25', on the NNE. The gap on the S is probably secondary. (Information from A McLaren notebook 1, 111)
RCAHMS 1967, visited 1961
A settlement generally as described although in the S the remains of a stony scarp can be seen to run from beneath the main rampart and enclose an area of almost level ground. This suggests that originally the settlement was slightly larger and was later modified to exclude this portion. it is possible that the annexe was constructed at this stage since on the S and E there is evidence of gang-work suggesting that the rampart was probably unfinished.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (JP) 25 July 1971
Reference (1957)
This site is noted in the ‘List of monuments discovered during the survey of marginal land (1951-5)’ (RCAHMS 1957, xiv-xviii).
Information from RCAHMS (GFG), 24 October 2012.
Note (16 October 2015 - 18 May 2016)
This fort occupies the summit of a steep-sided spur on the N of Newby Kipps, from which it is separated by a shallow saddle. Oval on plan, its defences comprise inner and outer enclosures, the inner measuring internally 52m from NNE to SSW by 30m transversely (0.12ha) and containing three circular house-platforms, and the outer 80m by 56m (0.34ha). The ramparts of both circuits are largely reduced to stony scarps, and their are entrance through both on the NNE and S respectively. While RCAHMS investigators in 1961 considered the ramparts too slight to be classified as those of a fort, both have almost certainly been severely reduced by robbing and afforestation in the 19th century. Indeed the siting is not only spectacularly defensive, with steep slopes falling away into deep valleys around three sides, but the ramparts themselves are comparable to the remains of several other enclosures in the area that they did include in the category of fort.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3644
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
