Ashkirkshiel

NT42SE 13 4802 2028.

Earthwork, Ashkirkshiel. This structure, situated 150 yds. due S of Ashkirkshiel, occupies the SW end of a ridge at a height of 800ft OD and part of a shelf some 17ft below the summit of the ridge on its NW side. Roughly trapezoidal on plan, it measures internally 245ft from NE to SW by 210ft transversely, and is bounded on three sides by a bank and external ditch and on the fourth, or SE, side by the edge of a steep cliff some 40ft high. The bank is formed of ditch upcast and does not appear to have been revetted with stone; it averages 15ft in thickness at the base, the extra thickness shown on the plan on the NW being due to the fact that its scarp merges imperceptibly with the natural slope on this side, but only stands 1ft above the interior and 3ft 8 in. above the bottom of the ditch. The ditch appears as a slight hollow on the NE side and as a terrace on the NW, but has been entirely obliterated on the SW.

Apart from a gap in the bank on the SW, which is clearly intrusive, the only entrance is situated near the E corner. There is no sign of structures in the interior, but these may have been destroyed by later cultivation of the site. The earthwork, which should be compared with No. 76 (NT42SE 3.00), is probably a mediaeval or later farmstead.

RCAHMS 1957, visited 1950

This earthwork is as described by the RCAHMS, except that there is a further broad faded scarp (0.8m maximum height) on the NE side of the earthwork.

Revised at 25".

Visited by OS (WDJ) 30 March 1965

When resurveyed in December 1990, a number of additional details were identified: a second bank just outside the enclosure on its NE side, which cuts off the promontory that the enclosure occupies; four possible hut-platforms, located in the highest part of the enclosure; and broad rig (c10m wide), which surrounds the enclosure but does not appear to affect the interior. Finds from a previous excavation of the site, now in RMS, include a bronze hilt-guard of a pre-Roman Iron Age sword (accession number NMS HH 728), suggesting an earlier occupation on the site.

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1974; S Carter and M Dalland 1991.

The remains of this settlement are generally as previously described. The damage inflicted on the site by forestry ploughing in 1990 has been superficially repaired but the plough-scars are still visible, especially where they ride up close to the highest part of the interior on the S. Now lying within forestry, the settlement is no longer grazed and the interior was largely obscured with long grass on the date of visit; no internal features were noted.

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS/IMS) 10 September 1993.

The following finds from excavations by Mr and Mrs Cruickshank (Heatherlieburn, Heatherlie Park, Selkirk) were accessed to the Royal Museum of Scotland in 1970:

(NMS HH 728) Curved bronze hilt-guard with a decorative groove on one face, 1.9" (48mm) long, and probably from a sword of Piggott's Group III.

(NMS HH 729-34) Sherds of hard and gritted grey pottery.

(NMS HH 735-7) Pieces of stone, worn by use as whetstones.

Information from Mr T Cowie (NMS typescript continuation catalogue) 7 February 1995.

The archive generated by the 1990 field survey by Stephen Carter and Magnar Dalland has been catalogued.

Historic Scotland Archive Project (FD) 1999