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Calkin settlements and cultivation terraces, located near Thornhill in Dumfriesshire, is a settlement site with associated terraced cultivation remains situated on slopes of Riccarton Group wacke bedrock. The terraces were constructed to create level platforms on the hillside, a practical response to the local topography that would have improved drainage and stability for both building and agriculture on this sloping terrain.
The settlement comprises the structural remains of one or more dwellings alongside a pattern of cultivation terraces that step down the landscape. Such paired features are characteristic of upland settlement in the southern Scottish Borders and indicate an economy combining pastoral and arable farming. The wacke bedrock beneath the site, formed during the Wenlock period of the Silurian, provides poor soil development, making the creation of terraced fields an essential agricultural strategy.
The monument is protected as a scheduled monument under Historic Environment Scotland reference SM4394, recognising its significance as evidence of past land use and settlement patterns in this rural Dumfriesshire landscape.
Calkin,settlements and cultivation terraces 300m N of is a scheduled monument protected by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM4394. View the official record →
Calkin settlements and cultivation terraces, located near Thornhill in Dumfriesshire, is a settlement site with associated terraced cultivation remains situated on slopes of Riccarton Group wacke bedrock. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM4394.
Calkin,settlements and cultivation terraces 300m N of 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 SM4394.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Gibb's Hill, unenclosed settlement,palisaded settlements & houses (4.8 km), Callisterhall,cairn 2550m NNE of (4.9 km), Greencleuch Cottage, settlement 1550m NNW of (5.1 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Calkin,settlements and cultivation terraces 300m N of'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.
Calkin,settlements and cultivation terraces 300m N of stands on Riccarton Group, bedrock that formed in the Wenlock. The rock here is wacke.