More information : The remains of two stone-built farms, similar to that above Spartley Burn (NT 91 SE 21, medieval) underlie the modern store for winter fodder on the west of the modern farm road leading to the Shank, and the large ruinous sheep stell on a small knoll near the Coppath Burn (NT 9767 1177). (1)
The fodder store at NT 9720 1179 overlies one small garth and rectangular steading formed by slight earth and stone banks. Similarly, remains of garths and steadings lie on either side of the knoll on which the sheepfold stands (surveyed at 6" scale). Both groups are of a minor nature unlikely to represent nucleated farms. (2)
The garths and steadings are as described by Authority 2. They are in very poor condition and do not warrant survey at 1:10 000. (3)
The remains of a medieval farmstead, partly overlaid by a modern sheep stell, is situated upon a flat-topped knoll centred at NT 9767 1179 at about 270m OD. An associated field system is spread out along the S facing slopes N of Spartley Burn and E of Coppath Burn for a distance of 500m to the W and 250m to the S. The main building, at NT 9766 1181 comprises the rectangular foundations of a house, measuring 16.5 m NE-SW by 5 m transversely between the centres of an ill-defined, turf-covered stone wall, 1.3 m wide and about 0.2 m high. There are no entrances evident. Set into the E side of the knoll is a flat-topped circular platform, about 4.2 m in diameter and stone revetted around its lower SE side, which is about 1.3 m in maximum height. (NB. This is similar in appearance to NT 9711/2.) For about 70 m on both sides of the knoll on the NE and SW are the remains of several roughly rectangular enclosures, garths or small fields evident as low turf-covered wall foundations, all in poor condition, much robbed and ranging from 1-3 m in width and about 0.5 m in maximum height. One long wall, from NT 97691183 to NT 9735 1186, may be the edge of a field. Modern coniferous plantations to the N and NE may have destroyed more of the settlement as several walls disappear into them. There is now no clearly identifiable evidence for the second of two 'stone-built farms' noted by Jobey (1) at NT 9716 1182, some 460 m to the W of the farmstead described above. However, there are fragmentary remains of the footings of a possible wall in this area showing as an irregular, turf-covered crescentic line of stones about 1 m wide and 0.3 m high though little else now remains, the ground being much eroded and broken by cattle. This apparently delineates the W extremity of an area of cultivation almost certainly contemporary with the farmstead to the E. The field system is divided into three parts by two wet hollows, which have now been drained, and the best preserved areas are to the W. The area of cultivation (delineated by pecks on the plan) is now predominantly improved pasture but appears originally to have been covered by broad ridge and furrow with terraces on the lower S sides of some of the ridges, although it has now been ploughed and drained. Only slight traces of the rig can now be seen, the terraces being all that remain with an occasional stone clearance heap to show the extent of the cultivation. An area of broad ridge and furrow depicted on the transcript behind the plantation to the immediate NW of the farmstead has been lost to pasture improvement. (4) |