More information : (NT 9642 1543) A long house. (1)
(NT 9650 1535) Remains of enclosures. (2)
NT 9646 1540. A probable round cairn, 5.0 m in diameter and 0.4 m
high with a hollow in the centre was discovered during field
investigation. No trace of a ditch or retaining circle. (3) (This
feature was formerly recorded separately by the OS as NT 91 NE 10,
and is now incorporated in this report (NT 9615/50).
Centred at NT 965 154 is a scattered complex of rectangular steadings
and garths situated on either side of a small stream. It is similar
to others found throughout the area, usually in association with
fields, and are generally representative of minor homesteading which
was continuous from medieval to recent times (See also NT 91 NE 16).
The turf-covered stony mound, discovered by authority 3, is in a low-
lying situation close by a complex of medieval steadings and
enclosures, and it may be no more than a spoil heap or clearance
heap. (4)
No change to previous field report (authority 3); surveyed at
1:10,000. (5)
Deserted medieval settlement on the Rowhope Burn. Scheduled. (6)
NT 965 154. Between 1979 and 1983 excavations were undertaken by PJ
Dixon in this nucleated medieval settlement tentatively established
from documentary sources to be the 13th-early 14th century settlement
of Alnhamsheles. One house (no 1) was excavated completely, revealing
three phases, the earliest (13-14th century) being timber, and the
later being stone-built, dating from the 14th to the 16th C. Part of
an adjoining house (no 2) was dug, and in 1983 two trenches were cut
through field banks of the related field system. Details of the
excavations are contained in a series of interim reports. (7-18)
The remains of this deserted medieval village are aligned along a
ridge and river terraces on both sides of the Rowhope Burn at about
240 m OD, and comprise the foundations of some twenty-three buildings
[NT 9615/37-56], some within or attached to garths, others
free-standing. The remains are slight and now overgrown, and on the
S side of the burn land improvement has further reduced a large
number of structures.
House NT 9615/37 is that fully excavated by PJ Dixon (Dixon house 1).
The excavation is still open and the walls survive as slight, stony
rises; there are spoil heaps to the E and W.
House NT 9615/38 is that partially dug by Dixon (Dixon no 2). It
measures 17.5 m by 3.1 m within a wall spread to 1.5 m wide and 0.3 m
high; no entrance is visible.
No 39, which adjoins a rectangular garth, has an apsidal N end; it
measures 16.8 m by 3.3 m within a turf-covered wall spread to 1.5 m
wide and reduced to a height of 0.2 m. It is sub-divided into two
rooms by a cross-wall; no entrance can be identified.
Building 40 is very vague, not more than 0.15 m in maximum height,
with no trace of an entrance. It is approximately
16.0 m by 3.2 m, the wall where visible being about 1.2 m wide. A
cross wall divides it into two rooms.
No 41, also very reduced and not more than 0.1 m high, is divided
into two unequal compartments, the smaller E room being apsidal. It
measures 8.3 m by 3.2 m, the wall spread to a width of 1.2 m; a gap
in the W end wall may be an entrance. A dog-legged field bank
connects 41 to 40.
No 42 is severely reduced, particularly at the E end, and the wall
thickness is indeterminate. It measures about 13.7 m by 2.8 m within
a wall at best 0.1 m high.
Within a sub-rectangular enclosure [NT 9615/43] are three buildings
(A-C) and numerous rickles of stone, boulders and banks testifying to
buried structures too amorphous to assign date or function. The
enclosing banks appear to be of more than one period, and some of
them are more massive than those commonly found in medieval villages.
This and the amount of stone debris in the interior may indicate
earlier occupation, possibly a prehistoric enclosed settlement.
House A abuts the enclosure wall and measures 4.8 m by 2.0 m with a
rounded E end wall 0.1 m high and 0.9 m wide; no entrance is
apparent. B is heavily mutilated; the W end is 0.5 m high, but the
remainder is barely discernible. It appears to have been a
two-roomed structure approximately 25.0 m by 4.0 m within a wall
spread to about 1.6 m wide. More recently stones have been piled
upon its S wall. Building C measures 7.2 m enclosed by a wall now
spread to 1.0 m wide; the W end is rounded and no entrance can be
seen.
House 44 is 16.5 m by 4.2 m within a wall spread to 2.0 m wide and
0.2 m maximum height. There are traces of what appears to be a cross
passage and opposing entrances in the N and S walls.
No 45 is a depression cut into a N-facing hillslope to a maximum
depth of 0.7 m. It measures 10.7 m by 2.8 m and is open at the E
end. At its W end is a further depression 4.0 m in length and 0.5 m
higher. Around the N, S and W sides, the feature is fringed with
stony banks up to 2.3 m wide of a size commensurate with the amount
of material removed from the depressions. The interior is
stone-free. Superficially this feature resembles a silage pit.
However, if it were a house there is little similarity to others in
the village; if not its function remains uncertain. The amorphous
remains of a possible building abut the E side.
Adjoining a field bank which demarcates the W extremity of broad rig
cultivation are the fragmentary remains of a building [NT 9615/46],
8.5 m by 2.8 m, within a turf-covered wall of indeterminate thickness
and 0.1 m in maximum height.
No 47, scooped into the E-facing hill-slope, lies at the SW angle of
an enclosure. It measures 4.7 m by 3.7 m within a wall spread to 2.0
m wide and 0.4 m in maximum height. No entrance is discernible. The
enclosure itself, also scooped into the slope, is demarcated by a
more massive bank than is customary amongst medieval village
earthworks, which may indicate an earlier, possibly prehistoric date.
It contains a square enclosure which is unequivocally medieval.
No 48 measures 7.8 m by 3.7 m within a wall now spread to 1.6 m wide
and 0.6 m in maximum height. It is overlain by the bank that forms
the W side of the enclosure associated with 47, which continues S to
form the E side of a drove way known to post-date the occupation of
the village (Dixon 1981).
The remains of 49 are situated on a terrace immediately above the
Rowhope Burn floodplain. The E end wall cannot be identified with
certainty; the building would have been at least 13.0 m long by 4.0 m
wide within a vague, bracken-covered wall at best
0.2 m high. In the S are two opposing facing stones suggesting a
wall width of 1.1 m at ground level. No entrance can be seen.
On a spur above the floodplain of Rowhope Burn is a flat-topped,
circular mound [NT 9615/50]; this is the feature discovered by the OS
field investigator in May 1957 (see authority 3). It was classified
by OS in 1957 as a probable round cairn (3), and in 1969 as a spoil
or clearance heap (4). Both hypotheses seem dubious. The situation
lacks the prominence normally associated with a burial cairn, and
there is no evidence of cultivation in the immediate vicinity to
indicate clearance. A more likely explanation is that it is a
corn-drying kiln contemporary with the village. It survives as a
regular mound of stones overgrown with turf measuring 5.6 m by 5.2 m
and 0.3 m in average height. Some earthfast boulders occur on the W
side of the summit but no inner lining stones can be positively
identified. There are one or possibly two outer facing stones around
the N arc. No flue can be seen, and there is no positive evidence of
a kiln house though there is a concentration of turf-covered stone to
the E of the mound.
The greater part of the village just described occurs to the S of
Rowhope Burn [NT 9615/37-50], but occupation also extends onto the
river terraces to the N of the burn where a further six buildings [NT
9615/51-56] occur, some with the remains of associated banked
enclosures and fragmentary field banks.
No 51 measures approximately 15.0 m by 3.2 m within a turf-covered
wall 0.2 m high; both ends are rounded. Opposing facing stones in
the N indicate an original width of 1.0 m at ground level. It is
divided into two, possibly three, rooms; the E end may have contained
a small "milking parlour" but all that can be seen is a raised,
disturbed platform. No entrance(s) can be identified.
Building 52 is rectangular, measuring 10.3 m long by 3.5 m within a
wall now spread to 1.2 m wide and 0.1 m in maximum height. Inside
the house, running parallel and closer to the longer N and S walls
are two grooves showing as darker vegetation lines. These may be
fortuitous, but they possibly represent the remains of beam slots,
though none have been identified in this or other medieval villages
examined.
53 represents two, near contiguous buildings. The S example is
rectangular, 11.6 m by 3.6 m within a wall 1.5 m thick and
0.4 m in maximum height, in which several of the outer facing stones
are exposed. The entrance is in the middle of the S wall. The N
building is 8.1 m by 3.5 m within a wall, 0.3 m high and spread to
1.3 m wide; several inner facing stones and some boulders are visible
protruding through the turf. No entrance can be seen. To the E of
the building there has been some ground disturbance but the nature
of this is unclear. Nos 51-53 occur within the fragmentary remains
of an enclosure demarcated by a turf-covered bank on average 1.5 m
wide and 0.3 m high. An embanked garth lies to the S of 51 on a
lower terrace.
No 54 is in poor condition, overgrown with nettles, and measures 6.0
m by 4.2 m inside a wall not more than 0.1 m high and spread to 1.1 m
wide. No entrance is discernible.
House 55 is 8.0 m by 3.7 m within walls 1.4 m wide and 0.5 m in
maximum height; several outer facing stones are exposed around the S
and E arcs. There is an entrance in the S.
No 56 has largely been destroyed by a modern track; the E and part of
the N wall only survives , 1.5 m wide and 0.2 m high.
An extensive area of broad rig and furrow cultivation and
contemporary field boundaries occur N of the village complex [NT
9615/3] and to the S [NT 9615/57 and 58]; these have been dealt with
separately. (19)
NT 964 155; NT 964 154. Deserted medieval settlement on the Rowhope
Burn. Scheduled No ND/627. (20)
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