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Back Braes is a post-medieval enclosure located in East Lothian, Scotland, and is protected by Historic Environment Scotland as a scheduled monument under reference SM5748. The site sits upon bedrock of the Clackmannan Group, sedimentary rocks formed during the Westphalian period, which provides a foundation of pale sandstone and mudstone typical of this Coal Measures sequence. This geological setting is characteristic of the lower Lothians, where such strata underlie much of the agricultural landscape.
The enclosure represents the organised field divisions that became widespread across lowland Scotland during the post-medieval period, reflecting improvements in land management and farming practice from the 16th century onwards. The monument's survival as an upstanding feature demonstrates how such boundaries—whether defined by stone walls, banks or ditches—became embedded in the working countryside and persisted through subsequent centuries of agricultural change.
The protection of Back Braes acknowledges its value as evidence for the development of Scottish rural settlement and land use patterns during the early modern period. The East Lothian region's rich agricultural heritage and accessible terrain made it a centre of agricultural innovation and reorganisation, making such enclosures significant markers of this formative phase in Scotland's landscape history.
Back Braes,enclosure is a scheduled monument protected by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM5748. View the official record →
Back Braes is a post-medieval enclosure located in East Lothian, Scotland, and is protected by Historic Environment Scotland as a scheduled monument under reference SM5748.
Back Braes,enclosure dates from the post-medieval period, and is classified as a enclosure. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Back Braes,enclosure is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic Environment Scotland — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Scotland. The official designation reference is SM5748.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Crichton Mains,souterrain 1280m E of (6.2 km), Longfaugh,enclosures 200m E of (6.2 km), Longfaugh Fort,Crichton (6.3 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Back Braes,enclosure's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Back Braes,enclosure stands on Clackmannan Group, bedrock that formed in the Westphalian. The rock here is sedimentary rock cycles, clackmannan group type.