Overhailes
Enclosure (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Overhailes
Classification Enclosure (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 56214
Site Number NT57NE 16
NGR NT 56510 75970
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/56214
- Council East Lothian
- Parish Prestonkirk
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District East Lothian
- Former County East Lothian
NT57NE 16 5651 7597.
(NT 5651 7597) Three sides of a rectangular enclosure with a single ditch in a field bordering the main road half a mile WSW of Overhailes. The fourth (S) side ot the enclosure, which as measured 150ft E-W by about 200ft transversely, does not register on the air photographs (CPE/Scot/UK257: 4122-4) since the ditch is obscured by a farm track. RCAHMS Marginal Lands MSS
The site lies on a recently re-sown field. No trace of any earthwork or enclosure was seen but the area is surrounded by a thicker growth of vegetation. Enquiries at Overhailes farm obtained the imformation that natural rock lay only a few inches under the soil at this place and that the crop mark may indicate a greater depth of soil round the rocky area, made more obvious by ploughing.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 24 October 1962
This is one of at least twenty rectilinear ditched enclosures in Mid- and East Lothian which are superficially comparable with the Iron Age timber-house sites of the Northumberland coastal plain.
G Maxwell 1970
Further aerial photographs have been taken by the RCAHMS in 1977, 1978 1980.
(Undated) information in NMRS.
Aerial Photographic Interpretation (2 June 1954)
Enclosure, Over Hailes (Prestonkirk).
Three sides of a rectangular enclosure with a single ditch in a field bordering the main road half a mile WSW of Over Hailes. The fourth (S) side of the enclosure, which has measured 150 ft from E to W by about 200 ft from N to S, does not register on the air-photographs since the ditch is obscured by a farm track.
(1) CPE/Scot/UK/257, 4122-3.
Information rom RCAHMS (KAS) 2 June 1954.
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.
Aerial Photographic Transcription (13 June 1994)
An aerial transcription was produced from oblique aerial photographs. Information from Historic Environment Scotland (BM) 31 March 2017.
Magnetometry (August 2000 - January 2002)
Geomagnetic surveys have been carried out over a sample of 30 cropmark sites in the vicinity of Traprain Law, comprising Phase 1 of the Traprain Law Environs Project.
In the majority of cases (23 out of 30), the surveys have confirmed the presence on the ground of the enclosures shown on aerial photographs, often with very clear results. In a number of cases, the surveys have produced evidence of probable internal and/or external features which were not immediately visible on air photographs, while in other cases, the presence of these additional features has been confirmed. Several of the sites investigated appear to represent more than one phase of archaeological activity.
In the 7 cases where cropmark sites have not been readily identified, this appears to be due to a number of factors. In only one instance does the underlying igneous geology appear to be the main factor; while in several cases, anomalies not immediately relatable to the previous cropmarks were detected and might well prove be of archaeological significance.
The work reported here brings to a conclusion Phase 1 of the Traprain Law Environs Project.
Archive to be deposited in the NMRS.
Sponsors: Historic Scotland, University of Durham, and Dickinson College, Pennsylvania.
Duncan Hale and Colin Haselgrove.
Project (2000 - 2004)
A project investigating the nature and development of later prehistoric and Roman Iron Age settlement in a 15 by 10 km block of landscape around the major fortified hilltop site at Traprain Law in East Lothian.
