Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Scheduled Maintenance Notice
Please be advised that this website will undergo scheduled maintenance starting on Thursday, 30th January at 11:00 AM and will last until Friday, 31st January at 10:00 AM.
During this time, the site and certain functions may be partially or fully unavailable. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Martinlee Sike
Archaeological Landscape (Medieval) - (Post Medieval)
Site Name Martinlee Sike
Classification Archaeological Landscape (Medieval) - (Post Medieval)
Canmore ID 74615
Site Number NT60NE 20
NGR NT 655 076
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/74615
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Southdean
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Roxburgh
- Former County Roxburghshire
Field Visit (28 February 1992)
NT60NE 20.00 655 076.
This archaeological landscape comprises two farmsteads, a building and enclosure, two buildings, several pens, cultivation terraces, stock enclosures, small cairns, rig, and an old road, all encompassed by two large enclosures, both defined by a ditch and an external bank. The landscape extends for some 1250m from WNW to ESE by up to 300m in width on the N bank of the Carter Burn on either side of Martinlee Sike.
The E enclosure is primary, containing both of the two farmsteads, whilst the W enclosure appears on plan to be an addition, extending across Martinlee Sike as far as the next tributary of the Carter Burn some 850m to the WNW. On the Carter Burn side neither enclosure is bounded by a man-made feature and it must be assumed that the burn itself was the boundary. The E enclosure is about 7 ha in extent, most of which, displays traces of rig, but only some two-thirds of the W enclosure's 21 ha is rigged. A later roadway (NT60NE 20.05) runs across the W enclosure from WNW to ESE and cuts one of the buildings and its enclosure at the extreme W end of the W enclosure (NT60NE 20.06). Of the two farmsteads that to the W (NT60NE 20.01) lies on the W edge of the E enclosure, peripheral to the cultivated land, whilst that to the E (NT60NE 20.02) lies in the midst of the rig and has a bank running NNE from it, creating a subdivision of the enclosure. This suggests that the E farmstead is secondary. The dating of the site is indefinite. Like the rest of Southdean parish, it falls within the Royal Forest of Jedburgh (Orig. Par. Scot. 1851), but it is undocumented. The enclosures are defined by a bank and an external ditch, designed to keep animals, and specifically deer in a Royal Forest, out of the cultivated ground, but not "to prevent a trespassing deer from escaping quickly from the farmland" (A Fleming and N Ralph 1982, 104-5). There is no settlement at this location on any of the early cartographic sources, which would favour a medieval date.
20.01 NT 6554 0762 Farmstead (ROX92 20-21)
20.02 NT 6589 0755 Farmstead (ROX92 22-24)
20.03 NT 6565 0765 Rig; Cultivation terraces; Small cairns; Stock enclosures; pens (ROX92 19, 25)
20.04 NT 6552 0790 Building (ROX92 73)
20.05 NT 6530 0792 Road
20.06 NT 6500 0815 Building and enclosure (ROX92 1)
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 28 February 1992.
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
