Muirhouselaw

Homestead Moat, Muirhouselaw.

In flat parkland 150 yds SE of Muirhouselaw farm-buildings there is a rectilinear earthwork consisting of two contiguous enclosures lying approximately on a NW and SE axis (see RCAHMS 1956,fig.324). The larger, or SE, enclosure measures about 220ft square internally, and is bounded on the SE and SW sides, and partly on the NW side, by a broad flat-bottomed ditch with upcast mounds on either lip. A faint scarp suggests that the ditch may have existed originally on the NE side as well, but, if so, it has been destroyed by the construction of a channel which feeds a large pond occupying the lower N corner of the enclosure and half the NW side. Since the earth-work is clearly a mediaeval homestead moat (see RCAHMS 1956, introduction, 47), this pond may be an original feature. The ditch, steep-sided and marshy, is a formidable obstacle measuring from 20ft to 30ft wide at the top, from 7ft to 9ft wide at the bottom, and up to 5ft deep. In contrast, the marginal mounds are of slight proportions. Where best preserved the inner mound is only 6ft 6in thick at the base and 1ft 6in high, while the outer mound is the same height but spread to a thickness of 12ft.

The gap in the marginal mounds on the SE side is modern and the original entrance to the enclosure appears to have been situated in the NE side, near the E corner, where a gap 12ft wide in the inner rampart is matched by a causeway across the ditch. The ground inside the entrance is disturbed by fragmentary banks and scooped hollows, but between the disturbed area and a scarp leading down to the pond there are remains of two structures either or both of which may be contemporary with the earthwork. The larger of the two, a rectangular two-roomed building with double walls, measures externally 67ft in length and from 27ft to 30ft in breadth. The walls are represented by turf-covered mounds only a few inches high and from 3ft to 4ft thick, the space between them varying from 2ft to 3ft. Probing suggests the existence of stone foundations beneath the turf, but without excavation it is impossible to determine the purpose of the double walls: another double-walled building occurs, however, on Crom Rig (RCAHMS 1956, no.983), while other examples have been noted in Wales, (C and A Fox 1934). The second structure, immediately to the NE of the first, measures 15ft square within a mound which varies in thickness from 8ft on the SW to 20ft on the NE, where it abuts the inner marginal mound of the earthwork. It may have been a tower.

The NW enclosure was probably about half the size of the main enclosure, but only its SW end survives. That the two enclosures are related is shown by the fact that they are separated by a common ditch and share a continuous ditch on the SW side. It is possible, however, that they are not strictly contemporary since their SW sides are slightly out of line. There is no trace of any entrance to the NE enclosure and the interior is featureless. The "Intrenchment" marked on the OS map 100 yds SE of the earthwork has completely disappeared; from the lie of the ground, however, it seems unlikely to have been anything more than a field boundary.

Muirhouselaw appears as Morhus in the Melrose Cartulary between AD 1165 and 1214.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 1 May 1947.

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).

NT62NW 1 6311 2837.

(Centred: NT 6311 2837) Earthwork (TI)

(Centred: NT 6322 2830) Intrenchment (T.I.)

OS 6" map, Roxburghshire, (1924).

The remains of this homestead moat are generally as described above. The upcast mounds on either lip of the enclosing ditch are now much reduced. In addition to the two structures (described by RCAHMS 1956) within the larger enclosure there is the outline of another rectangular structure within the east angle of the enclosure. In the wood at the west angle of the smaller enclosure, are the remains of a broad turf mound, c.0.5m high, which appears to be a continuation of the west side, but the detail is rather confused in this area.

The "intrenchment" to the SE of the homestead, appears to have been a broad turf bank now much reduced in places, and, as suggested by

RCAHMS 1956, is probably a field boundary.

Revised at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 28 November 1963.

Little is known of the medieval Scottish homestead, for most seem to have been swept away by the plough or overlaid by later buildings on the same site. The fortified, moated homestead was more likely to survive, and at least three are recorded in Roxburghshire. Dykeheads (NT 582073) and Bloomfield (NT 588234) are both roughly rectangular earthworks consisting of a wide ditch with modestly raised earthen banks either side, while Muirhouselaw is also rectangular but consists of two contiguous enclosures sharing a common outer ditch and separated by a common transverse ditch. Only the south-west end of the north-west enclosure survives; it was perhaps half the size of a still-complete main enclosure some 67m square. The ditch is steep-sided and still marshy, about 6m to 9m wide at the top, and 2m to 3m wide at the bottom. As it stands, it is up to 1.5m deep, and is bounded by small banks of up cast on either side, spreading up to 3.7m across but only about 0.5m high. The original entrance seems to have been in the north-east side, close to the east corner, where a causeway across the ditch matches a 3.7m gap in the inner 'rampart'.

Between the disturbed ground immediately inside this corner and the slope leading down to a former pond,are the remains of two possibly contemporary structures: the larger was a rectangular, two-roomed building, with double walls; the other, a square structure within a mound, may rather have been a tower. The pond may also be an original feature,feeding the moat-though certainly a later feeder channel has been cut to it destroying evidence of a ditch on the north-east side. Not all such moated homesteads, however, had wet ditches; and ditches were not only intended as defence against invaderswhether men or wild animals. They would also have served as an open drain for dwelling house, byre and barn.

As to date, none in England has proved to be earlier than the Norman conquest; most are probably 13th-15th century.

Information from 'Exploring Scotland's Heritage: Lothian and Borders', (1985).

Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.

Information from Scottish Borders Council