Roughlee

NT61SE 16 6562 1044.

(NT 6562 1044) Farmstead (NR)

OS 25"map, (1970).

The remains of what may have been an old farm can be seen about 80ft above the left bank of Jed Water at a point some 700 yds SSW of Roughlee. The site is a shelf on the steep hillside, evidently enlarged and improved to some extent be terracing, and is flanked on the E by a small but steep-sided gully with the remains of a bank of earth and stones along its lip. In the lowest part of the occupied area a terraced plot, enclosed and subdivided into two by similar and greatly spread banks, which no doubt represent the remains of low walls, extends about 50 yds W from the gully, swinging slightly with the contours. It is from 10 yds to 15 yds in width from N to S. Above this enclosure there lies a flattish triangular area bounded on the E by the gully and on the NW by a range of quarries from which the building-material for the settlement has evidently been obtained. On this, in addition to some traces of structures which cannot now be identified, there remain the foundations of two rectangular buildings. One, which abuts on the upper wall of the enclosure, measures 20ft by 11ft internally, its foundation-mounds being too much spread for measurement; the other, which stands on the lip of the gully, measures 28ft by 19ft over mounds averaging about 5ft in thickness. In view of the general similarity of the site to that of Mervinslaw (NT61SE 18, qv), the possibility of the second of the

above buildings having been a pele-house should be borne in mind.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 1946.

RCAHMS confirmed.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS(RD) 21 February 1967.