© Mapbox · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Boundary data © Historic Environment Scotland
Sourhope is an unenclosed platform settlement and field system located in Roxburghshire in the Scottish Borders. The site comprises terraced platforms and associated field boundaries, characteristic of upland pastoral communities that utilised these elevated moorland landscapes. Built upon Devonian bedrock of mafic lava and tuff, the settlement occupies terrain shaped by ancient volcanic activity, now weathered into open rolling ground suitable for stock rearing.
The platform terraces served as levelled building sites within an otherwise steep landscape, a practical response to constructing dwellings on the undulating terrain of the Southern Uplands. The surrounding field systems reflect the organisation of pastoral agriculture, typical of post-medieval settlement patterns in the Anglo-Scottish border region. Such sites demonstrate how communities adapted their architecture and land use to the demands of moorland topography and subsistence economy.
Sourhope is protected as a scheduled monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM4833, recognising its significance as evidence of historical rural settlement and land management practices in the Borders. The monument remains an important archaeological resource for understanding post-medieval upland occupation and the relationship between communities and their environment in this frontier landscape.
Sourhope,unenclosed platform settlement and field system 1900m N of is a scheduled monument protected by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM4833. View the official record →
Sourhope is an unenclosed platform settlement and field system located in Roxburghshire in the Scottish Borders. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM4833.
Sourhope,unenclosed platform settlement and field system 1900m N of dates from the post-medieval period, and is classified as a unenclosed platform settlement and field system. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Sourhope,unenclosed platform settlement and field system 1900m 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 SM4833.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Outer Cock Law, old roads and linear earthwork (6.1 km), Windy Gyle,cairns 480m & 700m NE of summit of (6.9 km), Round cairn west of Windy Gyle, 680m WNW of Russell's Cairn (6.9 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Sourhope,unenclosed platform settlement and field system 1900m 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.
Sourhope,unenclosed platform settlement and field system 1900m N of stands on Unnamed Extrusive Rocks, Silurian To Devonian, bedrock that formed in the Devonian. The rock here is mafic lava and mafic tuff.