(NT 96421543) A long house. (1)

NT 96501535 Remains of enclosures. (2)

Centred NT 965154. A scattered complex of rectangular steadings and garths situated on either side of a small stream between the 700ft and 800ft contours. It is similar to numerous others found at the higher levels throughout the area, though more extensive than most. They are usually in context with fields, and are generally representative of minor homesteading, which was continuous from medieval until recent times. (See also NT 91 NE 16). (3)

No change to report of 5.11.69. Surveyed at 1:10000. (4)

Deserted Medieval Settlement on the Rowhope Burn. Scheduled. (5)

NT 965154: A medieval house underlying a later sheep pen and shelter remains was excavated by P Dixon between 1979-80. The house formed part of a nucleated medieval settlement. Documentary evidence for this area tentatively suggests that this settlement was the 13th - early 14th century settlement of Alnhamsheles. The house was constructed of large boulders used for wall facing with a wall core packed with clay and small to medium size stones. It measured 20m by 5m. The interior was divided into three parts. The west end or habitation area had a floor of yellow clay, 6m long by 3m wide. In the centre was a hearth composed of large stones set in a depression in the floor. The central part of the house was a byre on the evidence of a gully surviving as a drain. The function of the east end with its hard earth and 'cobbled' floor is unsolved. Quantities of medieval pottery from the site were recovered dating from 1200-1500 AD, which indicates a late medieval date for the desertion of the house. See plan. (6)(7)(8)

NT 965154. Further excavations of the late medieval stone house have revealed an earlier stone house on the same east-west axis, which measures 12.5m by 6m and is divided into two rooms. Evidence for a preceeding phase of timber construction was also revealed. The stone phase of medieval activity is divided into two periods; the first period of occupation dates broadly to the 14th and 15th centuries; the second period dates to the 16th century.
House Site 1: The earliest stone house (late 14th to 15th century) consisted of three bays of 4m, supported on cruck timbers. A large slab at the head of the byre-drain was interpreted as a hearth. At the west end of the site an extensive area of burning was discovered, suggesting that this building was destroyed by fire. An enclosure measuring 20m by 20m adjacent to the north side of the house, was contemporary with this period of occupation. The timber-built house (late 13th to early 14th century) which preceeded this stone phase occupied the same site and axis, and measured 13.5m by 2.5m. Its gable ends were supported by posts, and its walls rested in shallow foundation trenches 5m apart.
House Site 2: To the north-east of house site 1, the west end of an adjacent stone house was uncovered whose structure was similar to the second period of stone house on house site 1. Its characteristics were a raised clay floor, stone walls constructed of large boulders, and an
apsidal end wall. The room was 6.5m long and up to 4m wide, with a central stone hearth, and defined from the byre by a stone-based partition. The surface of the clay floor showed extensive signs of burning. As with house site 1, there is strong evidence for the destruction of the house by fire. (9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)

During excavations in 1983, two trenches were cut through field banks of the field system relating to the deserted village of Alnhamsheles. One trench examined the other side of the drove way sectioned in 1982. This proved to be of similar form and size, revetted with boulders and circa 0.70m high from the base of the ditch. The second trench was cut across a sector of the enclosure bank surrounding the area of ridge and furrow cultivation. The bank was constructed of topsoil and subsoil from the ditch; and the front was revetted with boulders. It stood circa 1m high from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the bank. (17)

Description of Alnhamsheles (Alnhammoor), tenure and earthwork remains. (18)

Exidence for nucleated medieval settlement - Alnhamsheles? May have originated in former shieling ground. (19)

Excavation at potential medieval hamlet. Tentatively identified as Alnhamsheles, a 13th and 14th century permanent settlement (known from documentary evidence). 14th century coin and medieval pottery recovered. Minimum of two structural phases. (20)

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. (21a)

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- ectangular 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 orm 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. (21b)

NT 964 155; NT 964 154. Deserted medieval settlement on the Rowhope Burn. Scheduled No ND/627. (21c)