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Whitmuirhaugh, Sprouston
Causewayed Enclosure (Neolithic)(Possible), Fort (Period Unassigned)(Possible), Unidentified Flint(S) (Flint)(Period Unassigned)
Site Name Whitmuirhaugh, Sprouston
Classification Causewayed Enclosure (Neolithic)(Possible), Fort (Period Unassigned)(Possible), Unidentified Flint(S) (Flint)(Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) River Tweed
Canmore ID 141939
Site Number NT73NE 22.01
NGR NT 7571 3609
NGR Description Centred NT 7571 3609
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/141939
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Sprouston
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Roxburgh
- Former County Roxburghshire
Cropmarks recorded on aerial photographs have revealed a causewayed enclosure of Neolithic date backing onto the bank of the River Tweed. A broad, discontinuous ditch describes an arc against the riverbank measuring approximately 190m by 100m, and the segmented form of the ditch is typical of such enclosures. A number of Neolithic flint artefacts have been found in the interior.
Text prepared by RCAHMS as part of the Accessing Scotland's Past project
NT73NE 22.01 centred 7571 3609
Amongst the cropmark features visible on aerial photographs of the gravel terrace at Whitmuirhaugh, there is a D-shaped enclosure backing onto the River Tweed, its arc formed by the broad discontinuous ditch that is identified in previous accounts as a promontory fort. The ditch encloses an area measuring about 190m from NNW to SSE along its chord by 100m transversely and there are at least three major breaks along its course. This form of construction is characteristic of causewayed enclosures of Neolithic date. Smith (1992) notes that flint and chert artifacts, including burins, points and scrapers, have been recovered from the area of the enclosure in the course of fieldwalking. As such, it is plotted as an interrupted-ditch enclosure on a distribution map of Neolithic monuments covering southern Scotland (RCAHMS 1997).
Information from RCAHMS (ARG), 24 April 1998.
(Listed as possible causewayed enclosure). This plough-levelled enclosure was discovered during aerial reconnaissance by CUCAP in 1936 [sic.]. It was initially interpreted as a promontory fort.
A Oswald, C Dyer and M Barber 2001.
Field Walking (May 1982)
Smith (1992) notes that flint and chert artifacts, including burins, points and scrapers, have been recovered from the area of the enclosure in the course of fieldwalking.
Aerial Photographic Interpretation (1997)
Amongst the cropmark features visible on aerial photographs of the gravel terrace at Whitmuirhaugh, there is a D-shaped enclosure backing onto the River Tweed, its arc formed by the broad discontinuous ditch that is identified in previous accounts as a promontory fort. The ditch encloses an area measuring about 190m from NNW to SSE along its chord by 100m transversely and there are at least three major breaks along its course. This form of construction is characteristic of causewayed enclosures of Neolithic date.
Aerial Photographic Interpretation (2001)
This plough-levelled enclosure was discovered during aerial reconnaissance by CUCAP in 1936 [sic.]. It was initially interpreted as a promontory fort.
A Oswald, C Dyer and M Barber 2001.
Note (3 April 2017)
The palimpsest of cropmarks on a terrace above the S bank of the River Tweed at Sprouston includes a curious earthwork that has been variously interpreted as a ploughed out promontory fort or a Neolithic causewayed enclosure (Smith 1991, 266; Reynolds 1980, 50; St Joseph 1982, 192). The clue to this divergence of opinion lies in the character of the ditch revealed by the cropmarks, which is broken into at least five segments of varying lengths by both narrow and broad causeways. The broadest of the segments is up to 6m across, and they are strung out in a shallow arc to form a D-shaped enclosure backing onto the bluff above the river, enclosing an area measuring up to 180m fro NW to SE along the chord by 80m transversely (1ha). Field-walking by Ian Smith recovered scatters of flint artefacts from this area, which is slightly elevated above the rest of the field and bounded on the SE by a shallow gully, while the cropmarks elsewhere include a cluster of rectangular buildings probably of early medieval date and a burial-ground, but these have little bearing on the date or purpose of the earthwork. No causewayed enclosure has been confirmed by excavation this far north, and a more conventional explanation of the causewayed ditch might be an unfinished perimeter; there are certainly several other large earthwork enclosure backing onto the Tweed in Berwickshire, and an Iron Age context is perhaps a more likely interpretation until proved otherwise.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 03 April 2017. Atlas of Hillforts -SC3427.html
