NT 954174. Five unenclosed round house platforms amidst embanked field plots and scattered cairns were discovered at Standrop Rigg by ground investigation in 1978. (1)

Surveyed at 1:1250. (2)

This unenclosed settlement (NT 945175) (3)(NT 951174) (4 and 5), consists of at least five, possibly six, round buildings on slight platforms, associated with field clearance plots defined by linear banks and stone clearance cairns. (See illustration card).
The settlement lies at an altitude of c.380m on the lower south to south-east facing slopes of Great Standrop. A second similar, smaller unenclosed settlement is situated to the east between Het and Dunmoor Burns (see NT 91 NE 49). The total area covered by the visible remains is c.2.75ha.
Excavation of house 2 revealed a ring bank of stones and boulders, measuring at least 2.5m wide and 0.5m high to the south, fading out completely to the north (see illustration, 'Standrop Rigg: 2'). No interior structural features were evident until the subsoil was reached. There small stake holes and a number of substantial post holes were found, but no clear evidence for an earlier timber house was revealed. Interior features consisted of a patch of burnt red subsoil (b), possibly the site of a hearth, and a shallow pit (a).
Decorated pottery sherds, two fragments from saddle querns, together with a number of possible hand-rubbers were recovered from the site. The decorated potsherds indicate a general context for occupation in the 2nd millennium.
Excavation of house 4 revealed a more prominent ring bank, measuring 3m wide and 0.7m high, enclosing a roughly circular area 8.5m to 9m in diameter (see illustration, 'Standrop Rigg: 4'). Interior structural features were not evident until the underlying subsoil was reached, where 12 positive, and a further 25 stake holes were discernible. Nineteen larger post holes were also recovered. The smaller stake holes may represent evidence for more than one structural phase. Evidence for at least 1 hearth was marked by small stones set into the subsoil around an area burnt red to a depth of 40mm. Two remaining features in the area were shallow pits (A and B), the latter possibly not comtemporary with the stake circle. Some sherds of hand made pottery were found within the house, but no artefacts were found within the main body of the ring bank. A charcoal sample from pit A yielded a radio carbon date of 2070+/-80 BC,suggesting that there could have been activity on the site as early as the mid 3rd millennium BC. However, in the absence of associated structural evidence and artifacts appropriate to the period, the nature of this activity must remain uncertain.
The grid references given by the above authorities show a variation of 900m east-west, therefore siting has been achieved using plan (2) in conjunction with OS 1:10,000 1978, since both show the small plantation south of Standrop Rigg. (3)(4)(5)

Visible on aerial photographs. (6)

Scheduled. (7)

NRHE UID 2212
Unenclosed prehistoric settlement and field system [see NT 9517/24-32] constructed on the lower SE-facing slopes of Great Standrop at about 350m OD, approximately 700m W of the Linhope Burn settlement (NT 91 NE 49). Standrop Rigg settlement lies immediately N of Linhope Burn on boulder-strewn well drained slopes.
In 1979-80 limited excavations were carried out on two of the houses by Jobey (Authority 3-5). Site NT 9517/19 (Jobey's House 2) was found to consist of a ring-bank. Charcoal from a late context within the house produced a date of 410+/-70 bc. Structural remains of an earlier phase were discovered as well as a possible hearth and a pit, dated to 1050+/-80 bc. The remains of this house are no longer visible though the field boundary adjoining its S wall is extant. However, NT 9517/20 (Jobey's House 4) can still be traced on the ground, its rubble and boulder walls remaining prominent features. This was also a ring-bank house containing structural features, a ring groove, stake holes and post holes.
Dates of 2070+/-80 bc and 350+/-70 bc were obtained for earlier and later phases of this building.
Several other hut stances were observed within the limits of the field system. One possible hut stance [NT 9517/21] is a raised and levelled platform 0.5m high located in the NE angle of a field. In a roughly central position in the field system is a well preserved circular level hut stance [NT 9517/22] 9m in diameter with a stone apron 1.4m wide and 0.5m high on the S, downslope, side. No structural evidence was recorded on the platform, which may indicate that it originally held a timber building, as was discovered in the excavations. An irregular gap between two field boundaries [NT 9517/23] was suggested by Jobey as another possible hut stance but the remains now visible do not support this suggestion. (8a)

NRHE UID 1033999
The Standrop Rigg field system consists of at least eleven irregular fields enclosed by roughly coursed rubble walls up to 0.5 m high, or erratic lynchets with a maximum height of 1.6 m. Access to the fields was afforded by several entrance ways of which NT 9517/31 is the best preserved; additionally, several fields contain clearance heaps [NT 9517/24-30], although never more than two per field, which may suggest some form of agricultural activity. No other surface indications of cultivation were recorded. The remains of about five roundhouses (NT 91 NE 52) lie within the field system. (8a)