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Southdean Law

Cultivation Terrace(S) (Prehistoric) - (Medieval), Field System(S) (Prehistoric) - (Medieval), Lynchet (Prehistoric) - (Medieval), Rig And Furrow (Medieval) - (Post Medieval)

Site Name Southdean Law

Classification Cultivation Terrace(S) (Prehistoric) - (Medieval), Field System(S) (Prehistoric) - (Medieval), Lynchet (Prehistoric) - (Medieval), Rig And Furrow (Medieval) - (Post Medieval)

Canmore ID 56817

Site Number NT60NW 11

NGR NT 6365 0936

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/56817

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Scottish Borders, The
  • Parish Southdean
  • Former Region Borders
  • Former District Roxburgh
  • Former County Roxburghshire

Activities

Field Visit (13 May 1938)

NT 636 095: Cultivation Terraces, Southdean Law.

A large but indistinct group of terrace-like markings appears on the N side of Southdean Law.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 13 May 1938.

Field Visit (15 February 1967)

NT60NW 11 6365 0960.

Area NT 6365 0960. A large area containing four or five cultivation terraces from 10.0m to 15.0m wide. Not considered worthy of survey.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 15 February 1967.

Field Visit (21 September 1976)

No change to field report of 15 February 1967.

Visited by OS (BS) 21 September 1976.

Field Visit (28 May 1992)

The cultivation terraces and rig originally observed at NT 636 095 (RCAHMS 1956, No. 963) form part of a much greater expanse of cultivation remains covering most of Southdean Law. These include two probably prehistoric field-systems, as well as numerous lynchets, some of which are demonstrably part of the field-systems themselves. In two places (NT 6352 0944 and 6348 0933) field-banks run right up to the outer perimeter of Southdean Law fort (NT60NW 2) and must either be coeval with the final phases of the occupation or later.

The field-systems are best preserved on the NW and SE sides of the Law. That on the NW (NT 634 094), 1 ha in extent, comprises at least four adjacent rectangular fields about 25m in breadth, defined by stony banks or rickles of stone that run from the base of the steep slopes of the Law downhill for some 90m. That on the SE (NT 636 093) is disposed in a series of strips or fields defined partly by lynchets on the slope of the Law or by stony banks on the top of the Law. Generally about 25m to 30m in breadth, one or two of the strips are much narrower at about 10m, and they run along the contour for some 300m. In at least two places (NT 6364 0936 and 6348 0930) there are cross-dykes that divide the strips into fields, possibly about 150m in length, but subsequent cultivation has probably reduced many of the cross-dykes (see ROX92 88). The terracing on the NE of the Law is also much reduced by recent cultivation, but a well-preserved patch survives at NT 636 095, which combines a series of narrow strips (10m-15m) defined by terraces and by two cross-dykes that run diagonally to the terraces.

There are occasional clearance heaps amongst the field-systems and a row of six small cairns extends the line of a lynchet for some 50m to the W at NT 6357 0926.

The rig, although much reduced by recent cultivation, varies in width between 4m and 7m and runs parallel to the lynchets on the S of the Law, but on the NW it runs across the contour in the area of the field-system at NT 6344 0944. (OS vertical air photographs 024/278, 1968)

Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 28 May 1992.

Sbc Note

Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.

Information from Scottish Borders Council

References

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