Little Rough Law
Fort (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Little Rough Law
Classification Fort (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) The Yett
Canmore ID 57925
Site Number NT71NE 12
NGR NT 7960 1690
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/57925
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Hownam
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Roxburgh
- Former County Roxburghshire
NT71NE 12 7960 1690.
(NT 7960 1690) Fort (NR)
OS 6" map, (1958).
This fort occupies a rocky knoll (1,000ft OD) on a spur of high ground. Oval on plan, it measures 205ft from NW to SE by 165ft transversely within a stone-faced rampart set on the edge of a terrace quarried out of the hillside, varying from 20ft to 30ft in width. Only occasional inner facing-stones survive in situ. The main entrance is in the SE, while a second entrance, in the NW, gives access to an annexe, occupying a saddle and measuring 200ft from NW to SE by 210ft transversely within a wasted rubble rampart, which has an entrance in the NE. There are signs that the defences of both fort and annexe were originally more elaborate. There is a fragment of an outer rampart on the S side of the annexe; it returns at the E end as if it was designed to enclose the fort as well. Slight traces of a ditch occur on the SW side of the main entrance to the fort, and there is a crescentic segment of ditch on the hill slope 35ft below the fort on the E. (see RCAHMS 1956, plan, fig.190).
RCAHMS 1956, visited 1938.
This fort is generally as described and planned by the RCAHMS.
Surveyed at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (JRL) 23 October 1979.
Visible on vertical air photographs OS 68/024/78-9, flown 1968.
Information from RCAHMS
Note (8 September 2015 - 18 May 2016)
This fort is situated on the NE spur of Green Hill, which forms a steep-sided ridge separating the valleys of the Mainhope Burn from the Heatherhope Burn. Its defences comprise two elements, namely a single rampart enclosing the summit of a knoll on the ridge, and another rampart enclosing an annexe on the NW. The enclosure on the summit measures internally about 62m from NW to SE by 50m transversely (0.24ha), and its rampart has been largely reduced to a scree of grass-grown rubble around the lip of the knoll, along which occasional inner facing-stones can be seen, including a short run on the S. There are two entrances, one allowing access off the spine of the ridge on the SE, and the other opening into the annexe on the NW. The latter forms a roughly rectangular enclosure, taking in the shallow saddle to the NW and a rib of outcrop immediately to its NW, and measures internally a maximum of 65m from NE to SW by 58m transversely (0.35ha). Its rampart springs from the rubble of the main wall of the fort on the NNW, is pierced by an entrance on the NE, and returns to the fort on the W, where it is apparently accompanied by an outer bank. The relationship between the annexe and the fort is unclear, though the configuration on the plan would suggest that it is an addition, in which case it should perhaps be regarded as a free-standing rectilinear settlement enclosure, rather than a subsidiary element in the defences of the fort. The interiors of both are featureless.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC3404
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
