Outer Hare Cleuch

NT81NW 36 from 8317 1598 to 8321 1600

(NT 8317 1597 - NT 8328 1604) Earthwork (NR)

[Unspecified] OS map.

A linear earthwork runs WSW from the brink of Outer Hare Cleuch, near its head, to within 23 yds of the fence marking the parish boundary. It could be called a 'cross-dyke', of which there are a number in Roxburghshire. They are non-defensive, though they may have served as obstacles to traffic. There is no conclusive evidence for dating them to any particular period.

It consists of a much spread mound with wide depressions, which take the place of a ditch, on its upper side. The WSW section, 55 yds in length, is fairly well marked, but the remainder is very indistinct. A hollow track rises from the cleuch at the ENE end, and immediately disappears in the moss.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 1944.

As described by the RCAHMS.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 1 September 1960.

No change.

Resurveyed at 1:10 000.

Visited by OS (TRG) 30 August 1976.

Over the moderate NE-facing slopes above the Outer Hare Cleuch, near its head and The Street (NT81NW 92), there is a linear earthwork. The earthwork stops on the E side of, and at right angles to, the complex of trackways forming The Street and may be truncated by these features. When visited by the RCAHMS in 1944, the earthwork could be traced for some 110m though only the WSW section was described as 'fairly well marked'; the remainder was described as 'very indistinct'. During the present survey only the WSW section was observed. It comprises a low bank standing up to 0.5m in height and stretching for about 45m and spread up to 4m in width. The RCAHMS (1956) noted that a series of wide depressions take the place of a ditch on the uphill, or SE, side. These hollows measure up to 4m in width and about 0.3m in depth.

Information from RJ Mercer (University of Edinburgh) 3 April 1985

RCAHMS MS 2598. No. 49/626