Ven Law

NT24SE 25 2584 4118.

(NT 2584 4118) Venlaw - No fort marked either on the Ordnance Map or on Chamber's Map, but there are unmistakable remains of one on this very likely spot. Fort (information from A McLaren notebook 2, 117-20).

D Christison 1887; RCAHMS TS., 6 June 1968

This site was overlooked in the fieldwork for the RCAHMS Peeblesshire Inventory, and only came to light after publication through a letter sent to the Commission by the owner.

The fort stands at a height of 325.5m (1068ft) OD on the S tip of Venlaw Ridge. It is situated, in trees, within a roughly triangular area defined by stone walls. At the time of visit (6 June 1968) the site was so heavily overgrown that a plane-table plan was impossible, but the approximate outline and dimensions were obtained by measurements based on the walls, and plotted on the O.S. 25-inch plan NT2541, of which a photocopy is attached to the record sheet (NMRS MS/453 formerly PBR/2/1).

the fort measures about 85m (280ft) by 64m (210ft) within multiple defences consisting of three walls; only the inner wall could be traced for its complete circuit, the middle and outer walls being visible only round the N arc. The inner wall is now reduced to a band of stony debris spread to a thickness of 4.5m to 6.0m (15ft to 20ft) and standing up to 0.6m (2ft) in height; one possible outer facing stone immediately N of a gap on the ESE. The entracnce on the SW, is represented by a gap 3.6m (12ft) wide; another, wider gap on the ESE may be a second entrance.

The outer pair of walls apparently concentric, maintaining a fairly regular interval of 6m (20ft) crest to crest; very severely robbed, and only visible round the N. sector, where access to the site is easiest, over almost level ground along the crest of the ridge. It is possible that they never continued round the circuit. The tumbled core material of the outer pair of walls, which is spread to a thickness of about 3.6m (12ft), is interupted by a 23m (75 ft) gap roughly in the centre of the surviving arcs.

RCAHMS record sheet(NMRS MS/453), 6 June 1968

NT 2584 4104. On the thickly-wooded S tip of Venlaw are the remains of a settlement which measures c.80.0m NW-SE by 58.0m within three stone walls. The inner wall can be traced for most of its circuit but it survives only as a scarp of stony debris 2.0m wide and up to 1.1m high. The outer walls survive only around the N and E. Both have been severely mutilated though in places they are visible as banks 3.6m overall and 1.0m high. On the E and NW they closely follow the inner wall but on the N they are separated from it by an area of level ground 34.0m wide forming an annexe.

There is no certain entrance but it is probable that it existed on the N where the approach is fairly level. A gap in the middle wall on the E side is almost certainly recent.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (SFS) 10 December 1974