Newhouses

NT51NW 18 5170 1829.

(Centre: NT 51701829) Earthworks. (NAT)

OS 6" map (1923)

Earthwork, Newhouses. This structure is situated 200 yds NNW of Newhouses, on the spine of a ridge and at a height of 650ft OD. It consists of an earthen bank with external ditch which encloses a subrectangular area measuring 100ft from NE to SW by 125ft transversely. The ditch is best preserved on the SW side, where the crest of the bank stands 6ft 3in above its bottom. Along the SW and SE sides of the earthwork there are the remains of an outer bank up to 4ft 6in high, but there is no indicatiion that this bank ever completed the circuit. The banks have been damaged by cultivation, and a road has been driven through the earthwork along the top of the ridge, presumably running through the original entrance. There are no internal features.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 1948

(i) MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS In the absence of excavation, over eighty earthworks in the county cannot be classified either because they do

not conform to recognised types or because their plans are not sufficiently distinctive. A few of these, occupying commanding positions on hilltops or the crests of ridges, are unlikely to be later than the 11th century; such are Bonchester Hill (No. 278), the group of earthworks on Whitcastle Hill (No. 865), and five roughly D-shaped earthworks lying within a radius of two miles between the River Teviot and the Slitrig Water- Gray Hill 2 (No. 999), Birny Knowe (No. 995), Crom Rig (No. 1000), Dodburn (No. 160, ii), and Pen Sike (No. 168)- which are characterised by ramparts massive in proportion to their size. The majority, however, are situated on hillsides or in the bottoms of valleys, generally below the 800 ft. contour, and are probably mediaeval. Most of these lower-lying structures, of which the outstanding examples are Timpendean (No. 435), Iron Castle (No. 945), and Scraesburgh (No. 466), were evidently designed for habitation and presumably contained wooden buildings; but a few of the simpler earthworks such as Huntly Burn (No. 51) may have been enclosures for stock.

RCAHMS 1956

The earthwork is generally as planned by RCAHMS but there are certain inconcistencies in the authority's report. The feature is best preserved on the west side where, also, the prominent outer bank is evident. In the interior, on the east side, are indications of a circular structure, slightly raised, measuring c.9.0m in diameter.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (EGC) 24 February 1965