Documents

Where documents include maps, the use of this data is subject to terms and conditions (https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/termsandconditions).

The legal document available for download below constitutes the formal designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The additional details provided on this page are provided for information purposes only and do not form part of the designation. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within this additional information.

• Type

  Legal Documents

  Title

  Legal Documents for Fort, 690m SW of the summit of Wrunk Law (SM5003)

  Download(https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/document/600036286)

Summary

Description

The monument is a prehistoric fort dating to the Bronze Age (2800BC-800BC) or, more likely, Iron Age (800BC-AD400) with the remains of a post-medieval farmstead within its enclosure. It survives as an enclosed promontory with earthen banks and ditches and upstanding earth covered, and exposed, stone walls and internal features. The monument sits on a relatively level promontory top with steeply sloped sides bounded by Wrunklaw Burn and the north bank of the River Dye. The northwest edge of the site leads to the gently rising slopes of Wrunk Law. The site is located at around 275m OD. 

The overall enclosed promontory fort measures around 120m by 65m. Access to the site is from the higher ground to the northwest. Across this neck into the promontory is an outer ditch, measuring over 10m broad by 3.5m in depth. The western end of the ditch leads into what is understood to be a natural gulley cutting down the slope to the valley floor. At eastern end of this feature is a break for a central entrance. Historic surveys depict a smaller ditch and bank running immediately east of the central entrance. Around 27m southeast of the outer defences is a second, smaller ditch and bank. This second defensive line encloses an inner area of the fort measuring around 70m by 50m. Elements of the inner defences may also extend along the southwest flank, and to the tip, of the promontory.  Internally, there are the remains of a farmstead occupied in late 18th century surviving as footings of a number of rectangular buildings, attached yards and a prominent circular feature to the northeast of the site. In the early 19th century, the farmstead was superseded by a shepherd's cottage located between the earlier inner and outer lines of defence. 
 
The scheduled area is irregular, covering the promontory top and extending to the Wrunklaw Burn on the east, up to 10m from the top slopes of the promontory on the south and west, and 10m from the mapped modern fence line on the northwest. It includes the remains described above and an area around within which evidence relating to the monument's construction, use and abandonment is expected to survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map. The above ground elements of modern gates and post and wire fences are specifically excluded from the schedule.

Statement of National Importance

The monument continues to meet the criterion of national importance as a well-preserved example of a multivallate promontory fort with surviving upstanding features. The fort is in a characteristic location of other inland promontory-style forts which are found across Scotland. It is therefore an important representative of this monument type and it makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the past as a possible multi-phase defensive site dating from later prehistory, most likely the Iron Age. It adds to our understanding of later prehistoric society in Scotland and the function, use and development of enclosed defended sites. The monument retains structural and other physical features and there is significant potential for the survival of buried archaeological deposits within and around the settlement which contribute to its research potential. The visible remains of later occupation in the form of a farmstead and shepherd's cottage provide further interest and greater time-depth to the site. The visible farmstead remains are potentially built upon an earlier agricultural settlement going back to the late medieval period. Further research and scientific investigation could determine the chronology of the farmstead remains on the promontory and how they relate to the earlier fort.

The designation selection guidance for scheduled monuments is published in the Historic Environment Scotland Designations Policy and Selection Guidance 2019, Annex 1, pp 9-10, https://www.historicenvironment.scot/designation-policy.  

References

Bibliography

About Scheduled Monuments

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Scheduling is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for monuments and archaeological sites of national importance as set out in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.

We schedule sites and monuments that are found to be of national importance using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Scheduled monument records provide an indication of the national importance of the scheduled monument which has been identified by the description and map. The description and map (see ‘legal documents’ above) showing the scheduled area is the designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The statement of national importance and additional information provided are supplementary and provided for general information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within the statement of national importance or additional information. These records are not definitive historical or archaeological accounts or a complete description of the monument(s).

The format of scheduled monument records has changed over time. Earlier records will usually be brief. Some information will not have been recorded and the map will not be to current standards. Even if what is described and what is mapped has changed, the monument is still scheduled.

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