<< Our Photo Pages >> Horseshoe Wood Settlement - Ancient Village or Settlement in Scotland in Scottish Borders
Submitted by Anne T on Saturday, 09 May 2015 Page Views: 1926
Multi-periodSite Name: Horseshoe Wood Settlement Alternative Name: Horseshoe Wood Scooped Settlement; Horseshoe Wood MoundCountry: Scotland
NOTE: This site is 0.7 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Scottish Borders Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Jedburgh Nearest Village: Hownam
Map Ref: NT78511891
Latitude: 55.463554N Longitude: 2.341421W
Condition:
| 5 | Perfect |
| 4 | Almost Perfect |
| 3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
| 2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
| 1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
| 0 | No data. |
| -1 | Completely destroyed |
| 5 | Superb |
| 4 | Good |
| 3 | Ordinary |
| 2 | Not Good |
| 1 | Awful |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
| 4 | Short walk on a footpath |
| 3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
| 2 | A long walk |
| 1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
| 4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
| 3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
| 2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
| 1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
| 0 | no data |
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Anne T visited on 4th May 2015 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 3 Horseshoe Wood Settlement, Hownam, Scottish Borders: After having parked in the sleepy little hamlet of Hownam, a footpath called The Street sets off near the village/community hall, leading off to the left of the main road up into the hills.
Just starting up The Street, there is a field to the right hand side of the road which holds what looks like another standing stone, so we stopped to investigate.
Continuing, we then passed a couple of houses on a gravelled roadway the footpath enters farmland which rises reasonably gently up towards Horseshoe Wood. At the time of our visit, the footpath was covered in manure (obviously had a herd of cattle on it recently). The lambs were very curious as to who these strangers were who were walking through their land, only moving from the warm soil of the path at the very last minute.
Horseshoe Wood runs to the left of the footpath, contained within a stone wall. Towards the higher end of the wood the wall has been demolished in two places and through this the mound of the settlement rises distinctly behind it.
Exploring, we found it to be an elongated mound, made even clearer by the fact it has no trees growing on it, with two circular scoops taken out of the left hand side; the first has a small tree growing out of it.
Curious, as this mound is relatively near the Standing Stone (only a couple of hundred metres), we took photographs and tried to find out more after our visit, but couldn't - but the description sounded identical to the RCAHMS/Canmore record of a scooped settlement nearby.
We thought perhaps this mound had been missed because it has been hidden by the wall and the trees within the wood.
If anyone can shed any further light on this mound, I'd be delighted to hear more.
This mound can easily be missed as it is hidden behind the stone wall of Horseshoe Wood, just before reaching the Horseshoe Wood Standing Stone.
Parking in Hownam Village, follow The Street trackway/footpath over the fields to the first wood which sits to the left hand side of the track - this is Horsehoe Wood. The stone wall has been demolished in two places (to allow access?) and the mound is clearly visible as a grassy mound which rises to the height of around 5-6 metres and is defined by no trees growing on top of it (there are the occasional old tree stumps but these are decaying and were cut down some time ago).
This grassy mound appears to be around the same size and shape as that upon which the Horseshoe Standing Stone sits upon. Walking up onto it, to the left hand side and just over half way along, there are two circular scoops which have been taken out of the mound, which could either be the remains of hut circles, the sides of which have tumbled down the slope, or quarrying.
Whilst this site is not formally recorded (we asked ourselves if it had been missed because of its position hidden behind the wall) this mound/settlement/enclosure appeared to us almost as described in the Canmore/RCAHMS record for Hownam Burns Scooped Settlement (their site reference 57963), but I am happy to be corrected.
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