NT 957174: An unenclosed round stone house, with associated clearance cairns and banks, was recorded from 1948 RAF air photography at Linhope Burn. Subsequent ground investigation revealed evidence of field clearance. (Located to NT 957171 from survey plan). (1)

Surveyed at 1:1250. (2)

Listed under settlements of unenclosed round houses and illustrated. (see illustration card). (3)

Building marked as !stell! on first edition OS 6 inch map is in fact a round stone hut, 9m in diameter on south east facing hillside. There are clearance cairns to the south and traces of field banks delineating plots thought to be contemporary with the hut circle. (4)(5)

Visible on aerial photographs. (6)

Unenclosed settlement and field system at Linhope Burn comprises two probable hut circles, fragmentary field boundaries and clearance cairns. This field system has been overlaid by cord rig cultivation stretching from the 295m contour to the 350m contour line. Excavations in 1989 of three sites.
Site 1: NT 9575217234. Published as a stell on 1866 OS 6 inch map. Excavated structure 9.1m diameter with maximum internal diameter of 8m. The walls were standing to a maximum height of 0.7m on the south side. Two entrances survived - one had been blocked and a later one inserted. Much of the upper stratigraphy had been destroyed by bracken roots. The structure appeared to be later than the cord rig. The excavated cord rig at this site had furrows up to 0.4m wide and no more than 0.1m deep. No tool/ard marks were found in the subsoil.
Site 2: NT 9568417315. Excavation revealed an initial phase of clearance followed by the construction of a hut circle. Finally after the abandonment of the hut circle a cairn was built over the west part.
Site 3: NT 9574517196. Cutting taken through a lynchet. Revealed the final phase to have been the cord rig cultivation, overlying the lynchet, the ploughsoil survived to a depth of 0.2m. Ardmarks were found crossing the scarp of the lynchet relating to the later cord rig. Beneath the cord rig were several layers including at least two old truf lines and an iron pan. A long period of abandonment is suggested before the appearance cord rig. Below the iron pan were at least two series of ardmarks.
A complex agricultural sequence has been uncovered at Linhope with possibly the first instance of ardmarks found in the Cheviots. (7)

NT 957172 Linhope Burn. Cord rig field(s)/field system later than stone built settlement. (8)

NT 957172 Linhope Burn, cord rig has produced 'medieval-like' reverse S-bends to the layout of the ridges. (9)

Scheduled. (10)

NT 957 172. This unenclosed settlement is located on the S-facing slopes encompassed by the Linhope Burn and its two tributaries the Dunmoor Burn and the Het Burn. The settlement comprises one well- preserved hut-circle situated at 310m OD, and fragmentary field boundaries and clearance cairns all overlain by cord rig cultivation stretching from roughly 295m to 350m OD. Approximately 700m to the W of this site, and on the same side of the Linhope Burn, are the remains of the Standrop Rigg unenclosed settlement (NT 91 NE 52).

The Linhope Burn hut-circle is constructed of faced rubble walls, now turf-covered, with a maximum width of 1.4m and up to 0.5m high in the SW, where the outer wall face still survives to a height of four
courses. An entrance 1m wide is located in the S wall. The interior of the hut-circle is now disturbed, and has an internal diameter of 6.5m. Tumbled wall material has accumulated on the downslope of the
hut-circle.

Associated with this hut-circle are the fragmentary remains of a field system now heavily disturbed and overlain by later cord rig cultivation [NT 9517/2-18]. (11a)

Surveyed at 1:500. (11b)

Excavations in 1989 uncovered the hut circle and a second possible house site 100m to the NNW at NT 9569 1732, and sampled the surrounding field system. No absolute dating evidence was found but the relative sequence suggested above was confirmed. (11c)