Monument record MHG24914 - Learable

Renumbered from NC82SE0020L
JHooper, 25/10/2002
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NC82SE 20.02 895 236.

There are some 12 hectares of plough-rig within the ring-dyke which bounds the cultivated lands of the farm. The ring-dyke describes a large semi-circle on the W bank of the River Helmsdale some 900m in diameter from N to S, and rises 75m from the river to the 145m contour. The earthen dyke stands as much as 1.2m in height, where best preserved, and abuts two of the buildings of the southern cluster of the fermtoun and overlies a third in the northern cluster (NC82SE 20.01).
The plough-rig ranges in width from 5m to 10m, displays a reverse-S shape, and forms furlongs, which extend between 50m and 170m in length. Whilst most of the rig cuts across the contour from SW to NE, there are several furlongs which run at right angles to the prevailing axis. However, neither the one nor the other are at right angles to the contour, both are oblique. In consequence, the leading edge of many of the ridges have developed terraces which, in places, rise as much as 1m in height. On occasion the terraces run the full length of a ridge, but elsewhere the terrace may start part of the way along the ridge. Where terraces have developed, a furrow may be observed both along the lip of the terrace on the one hand and along the base of the terrace on the other. In places the end of a furlong is marked by a well-developed terrace (eg NC 8955 2364), but in one case such is the irregular shape of the terrace that it cannot have been formed by the rig ploughing and may pre-date it (eg NC 8957 2355). Such evidence of earlier activity is also to be seen at NC 8950 2370, where the NW end of a terrace is occupied by a hut-circle (NC82SE 20.03) and the terrace runs divergently from the ridges of the furlong to the SW.
There are several traces of development amongst the rig. There are traces of furrows, which bisect the ridges, and of attempts to aid the drainage further by cutting trenches along the direction of the ridges. There are a number of large clearance heaps which either occupy the spine of terraces and are elongated by the cultivation process, or sit upon uncultivateable parts of the fields, such as the terraced enclosure at NC 8950 2360 (NC82SE 20.12).
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 5 June 1991.