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Kirndean
Moated Site (Medieval)
Site Name Kirndean
Classification Moated Site (Medieval)
Canmore ID 68009
Site Number NY59SW 14
NGR NY 5318 9093
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/68009
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Castleton
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Roxburgh
- Former County Roxburghshire
NY59SW 14 5318 9093.
(NY 5318 9093) Moat (NR)
OS 6" map (1957)
This square homestead moat, measuring 100 ft from side to side internally, lies in open moorland at a height of 600 ft OD. It consists of a stony bank, spread to a breadth of 15 ft and up to 1 ft 8 ins high on the inside, with an external ditch, 15 ft wide and up to 2 ft 6 ins deep. The entrance, originally about 7 ft wide, is in the NW side. The homestead moat is situated in an extensive system of rectangular fields, probably of later date as the cultivation appears to have spread all over the site.
RCAHMS 1956, visited 1948
This homestead moat has dimensions generally as described by the RCAHMS. Situated under rough pasture, there is no evidence that the ditch was once water-filled; it is only significant around the S side and elsewhere is no more than a flat-bottom channel with little sign of silting. Outside the ditch on the S and E sides are low counterscarps, 0.3m high, with embedded stone flags near the SE angle suggesting a former wall line. The interior is level with profuse nettle growth and there are recent mutilations of the inside bank along the W arm and at the SE corner. The entrance appears slightly out-turned, although this may be exagerated by the disturbance to this W arm.
Outside the moat around the N is a broad and artificially heightened scarp up to 1.3m high, indicating that the moat utilised a natural elevation on this side. Later rig-and-furrow stops short of the moat on all four sides and there is no trace of contemporary outworks.
Surveyed at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (JRL) 25 July 1979
This site is listed in an Atlas of Scottish History (McNeill and MacQueen 1996) as a moated site.
Information from RCAHMS (DE) September 1997
Field Visit (29 September 1948)
NY 532 909. This small earthwork which is square and measuring 100 ft from side to side internally, lies on the open moorland 300 yds from the left bank of the Boghall Burn, at a height of 600 ft OD. It consists of a stony bank, spread to a breadth of 15 ft, and up to 1 ft 8 ins high on the inside, with a ditch, 15 ft wide outside it. At a point a few feet NW of the S corner the ditch is 2 ft 6 ins deep from the level of the ground outside and 4 ft 6 ins from the top of the bank. There is an entrance, originally about 7 ft wide, in the NW side. The earthwork is situated in an extensive system of rectangular fields, probably of later date as cultivation appears to have spread all over the site. The size and situation of the structure, together with its rectilinear plan and good state of preservation, suggest that it is a homestead moat.
RCAHMS 1956, visited 29 September 1948
Measured Survey (29 September 1948)
RCAHMS undertook a plane-table survey of the homestead moat at Kirndean on 29 September 1948. The resultant plan was redrawn in ink and published at a reduced scale (RCAHMS 1956, fig. 126).
Field Visit (1996 - 2003)
Russell Coleman managed an Historic Scotland funded project to record medieval moated sites in Scotland. Gazetteers were produced for each regional council area between 1996 and 2002 with an uncompleted overall review in 2002-03. The results of the first year of the project were published in Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal, Volume 3 (1997).
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
