Rubers Law

After Eildon Hill North, Ruberslaw is the most prominent hill in Roxburghshire-isolated, imposing and with fine views to the Cheviots, the Eildons, the Lammermuirs, the hills of Selkirk shire and Liddesdale. Nearly 427m high, its igneous summit is crowned with a fortified settlement, supplanted by a later enclosure. This later, single stone wall encircling only the actual summit has an annexe to the south; it incorporates dressed stones sometimes suggested as Roman because of their diamond-shaped chiselling and re-used when the site was reoccupied by a British community, perhaps in the 4th or 5th century AD.

These structures make considerable use of rocky outcrops as an integral part of their defences; the earlier wall or rampart, by contrast, follows a roughly even course around the hill, well below the summit, enclosing nearly 3 ha in all. It is of boulder-faced rubble build, though over 100m is lost on the east side. There is a well-marked entrance on the south side, approached by a hollow track; two other possible entrances on the north make use of natural gullies.

This then is a pre-Roman hillfort large enough to be one of the minor centres of the Selgovae whose capital was probably on Eildon Hill North (no. 84). About 4km south-south-west, Bonchester Hill fort (NT 594117) shows a similar history.

South of Ruberslaw and west of Bonchester Bridge, either side of the A 6088, there are wide expanses of old cultivation rigs. Fairly straight, low and roughly parallel, they are unlikely to be much older than around AD 1800. Their survival is an indication of the retreat of arable cultivation from some of the higher lands; it also well illustrates the pre-improvement pattern of ridge and furrow cultivation-a necessary form of natural drainage as well as a basic working unit.

Information from 'Exploring Scotland's Heritage: Lothian and Borders', (1985).

The chronology and affinities of Rubers Law fort remain matters of considerable complexity and significance. Stevenson (1951, 194-5) considered it a ‘nuclear fort’ of putative early Historic date, comparable with others, notably Dunadd (NR89SW 1.00), of recognised historical significance. He noted that ‘For the post-Roman date of the walls of Ruberslaw we have the unmistakable evidence of Roman dressed stones built into them’ (as was earlier noted by Curle).

RCAHMS (1956, i, 102-5) considered this evidence in greater detail, noting the discovery of Roman coins and metalwork on the hill. They recognised Roman masonry ‘in abundance’ in the walls of the ‘citadel’ and ‘annexe’, but noted its absence from the outermost wall, which they saw as possibly representing a ‘fort or oppidum of early Iron Age date.’

Feachem (1963, 153 and 1965, 161) saw the fort as being (in the earlier work) ‘of at least two structural periods.’ In the later work, he suggested that ‘an earlier occupation of the larger defended area... was followed, probably after a gap, by a later occupation of the summit area, probably after the departure of the Romans from the vicinity.’

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 20 October 2011.

R B K Stevenson 1951; RCAHMS 1956; R W Feachem 1963; R W Feachem 1965.

A complex fortification encloses the summit and upper slopes of Rubers Law, a rugged and distinctive landmark between Jedburgh and Hawick. The principal remains can be divided into two elements; a citadel enclosure on the summit, with an annexe taking in a terrace and a rocky ridge on the SE; and a large outer enclosure contouring along natural terraces lower down the slope. The citadel is enclosed by what has been a substantial wall extending round the craggy lip of the summit and measures internally about 72m from ENE to WSW by a maximum of 32m transversely (0.18ha). There is a well-defined entrance at the ENE end, and a possible second at the W end of the SE side, from which a path drops obliquely down the slope into the annexe; the wall at the WSW end is also pierced by a narrow cleft in the rock face known as Peden's Pulpit, but RCAHMS investigators in 1949 did not think this provide a practicable route to the summit. Apart from a mound towards the ENE end of the grassy hollow between the rock outcrops forming the summit area, the interior is featureless; Alexander Curle dug into this mound and beneath a deep layer of soil found a loose heap of stones which he believed was the remains of a rampart, and he also found what he described as a well-defined hut-circle elsewhere (Curle 1907). The wall of the annexe springs from the foot of the summit on the SW and swings round the leading edge of a terrace and along the flank of a rocky ridge to return across a gully at the foot of the summit on the SE. Internally it measures about 90m from ENE to WSW by between 80m and 35m transversely (0.5ha). Its wall is largely reduced to a stony scarp, but where it crosses the gully on the E it forms a mound of rubble about 7m in thickness by 0.6m in height and the massive surviving facing-stones indicate an original thickness in the order of 3.6m; another row of upright stones can be seen 9m in front of the wall in this sector. An entrance on the SW is approached by a hollowed trackway. A notable feature of the walls of both the citadel and the annexe is that they incorporate dressed sandstone blocks which almost certainly derive from a Roman structure, speculated to have been a watchtower on the summit. Several other fragments of walling can be seen to the N of the citadel, which are possibly the remains of outworks controlling access up to the entrance on the ENE. Lower down the slope, however, there are the remains of a heavily ruined rampart contouring round the slope on all sides except the E, essentially following natural terraces and shoulders to form an enclosure of about 3.7ha; an entrance on the S is approached by a hollowed trackway mounting the slope obliquely to expose the visitor's left side, while other entrances possibly utilise two natural gullies on the N .

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 19 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3282

Location and landscape

Rubers Law, which is situated about 5 miles (8km) south-west of Jedburgh and 4 miles (7km) east of Hawick, is one of the most distinctive hills in the Scottish Borders. Rising steeply to almost 425m (1400ft) above Teviotdale, its lower flanks are formed of old red sandstone, while its lofty, rocky summit is composed of igneous rocks. These influence the land-use, with the improved ground around its broad, expansive skirt gradually giving way to a sourer, rougher pasture at higher elevations until the summit is reached, where there is very little vegetation to clothe the sharp ridges, deep gullies, small plateaus and screes.

From here the landscape far below unfolds to reveal the familiar silhouettes of the Eildon Hills and the Lammermuirs to the north, the Cheviots to the east and south and the hills of Selkirk, Roxburgh and Dumfries far away in the distant west.

There are ancient remains on the upper slopes of Rubers Law. In making an ascent from the north, the west, or south, one first encounters a discontinuous, grass-grown, natural terrace upon which there is the tumbled debris of a discontinuous, boulder-faced wall, which encloses almost 3 ha (7ac). This is an Iron Age fort. There are two entrances on the north, where gullies offer an easy approach and another on the south. Much of the broken ground the fort encompasses consists of the rocks that outcrop immediately below the hill’s bare summit. These support the remains of further collapsed walls looping from outcrop to outcrop.

Although it can be difficult to perceive their overall plan, these curling walls define a roughly oval enclosure interrupted by a deep gully on the hill’s peak, while lower down on the south, there is a roughly rectangular plateau that also incorporates a gully. There is an entrance on the east-north-east providing access to the oval enclosure on the summit, the approach to which is controlled by the natural configuration of outcropping rocks to the north, which are reinforced by further lengths of walling. A narrow path descending from the south-west of the oval enclosure provides a link with the plateau below.

The lost Roman building

These remains were first recognised by Alexander Curle at the beginning of the 20th century, who also made a startling discovery. The walls forming the enclosure and plateau consisted for the most part of the grey igneous rocks outcropping on the summit, but their lower courses also included sporadic, neatly-shaped rectangular blocks of pale red sandstone, some of which displayed ‘diamond-broaching’ – a criss-cross pattern scored into one surface that is characteristic of Roman work. Others exhibited herring-bone patterns, while some appeared to have formed sills or lintels. Curle concluded that these could only have been robbed from some abandoned Roman building that had once stood in the immediate neighbourhood. He also noted that their incidence clearly demonstrated that the fortifications around the summit (embracing the oval enclosure, its outworks to the north and the rectilinear plateau) could only have been constructed after the Romans had left Scotland. The blocks had been re-used as raw material in the construction of a new stronghold that had been built perhaps several hundred years after the abandonment of the Iron Age fort.

Nevertheless, the location of this lost Roman building in such an exposed and hostile environment was a puzzle. While they could have been robbed from a military post situated on the lower flanks of the hill, Curle could find nothing to support this. Instead, he surmised that the edifice must have stood upon the summit, ‘from whence a most extensive prospect would make it suitable for a post of observation, or for a signalling station’.

This idea was subsequently developed by Professor J. K. St Joseph of Cambridge University, who in the latter part of the 1940s discovered from the air the remains of a small Roman fortlet on the flanks of Brownhart Law in the Cheviots. Impressed by the extensive view to the north where Rubers Law dominated the centre-ground, he concluded that this must have been used for long distance signalling, with both sites forming part of a system exerting control over Southern Scotland. In the next few years, further weight was added to this hypothesis by the discovery of the earthworks of a possible timber watchtower on the summit of Craik Cross amongst the mountains far to the west, while those of another was recognised on the top of Eildon Hill North, sited immediately above the Roman fort of Newstead – the most important military post in the region.

However, it is now generally accepted that long-distance signalling would have been impractical and an explanation for the Roman stonework at Rubers Law still remains elusive. While the blocks could derive from a stone watchtower with a much more local remit, it is also possible that they originate from a shrine or some other kind of landmark.

A T Welfare - Archaeology Project Manager

Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.

Information from Scottish Borders Council