Cockburn Law, Lammermuir Hills
Cockburn Law Fort NT 766 598
Cockburn Law Fort is a nice example of a Border's Early Iron Age Multivallate Fort. The most intriguing feature is that the Fort may overlay an earlier substantial Enclosure Bank, seen on the Eastern side. Upon inspection, the clear Lidar evidence for the enclosure was difficult to see. The entrance was visible as a distinct feature in the SE and there was a single line of stones which formed part of the bank. It is interesting to note that the Enclosure and the middle bank of the Fort form a reasonable circle, centred near the top of Cockburn Law. However I could not establish that the bank underlay the fort, as I had hoped to do. So the existence and position of the circle may be illusory. It should be noted that the undated field system around Edin's Hall was of a dissimilar ditch and bank type.
Edin’s Hall NT 772 603
Edin's Hall is a complex multi-generational site. My English interpretation prompted by an analysis using a Best Fit Ellipse (ellipticity 0.562, error 0.63%), starts in the Late Neolithic / Bronze Age with a simple elliptical bank. This is highly accurate and maps very well onto most of the site, even beyond the plotted points in the West. This was followed by a heavy Early Iron Age Multivallate upgrade presumably during a time of strife. A Late Iron Age settlement was established in and beyond the Eastern end on the site, dismantling the protective banks there. The Broch in the Western section is thought to have been built as a defensive measure after the arrival of the Romans. It is too wide to be 'normal' broch, but otherwise clearly has broch-like features.
Edin’s Hall 2 NT 773 601
Edin's Hall 2 is an Iron Age-ish site not far from Edin's Hall. The site has probably been farmed out on the Western side, as all signs of the enclosure are absent there. The remaining enclosure is sub-rectangular in form. For an Iron Age Farm, it has an atypically large circular feature in the North. So its function and relationship with Edin's Hall is unclear.
Documented small-scale Copper Mining near Cockburn Law dates back to the second half of the 18th C at the 3 levels of Hoardweel Mine near Elba. There is also an open cast mine at Hoardweel, small Copper levels at Ellemford & Priestlaw and documented Copper at Longformacus. The Copper ore at Elba is in veins of green / blue Chrysocolla. This may have been concentrated as such, due to the nearby igneous intrusion at Staneshiel Hill. Interestingly there is a substantial now redundant road between Elba Ford and the Cranshaws road.Copper Ingots
Please read Andrew Dunwell's excellent detailed account of Edin's Hall prior to looking at these comments. The copper ingots were found under the floor at the bottom of Edin's Hall Broch's staircase. As such they are most likely to be Iron Age. Alternatively, it is possible that the ingots may have been stashed at this distinctive location, either legally or illegally at a later date, and never retrieved.
Whetstone
This 13.9cm Whetstone was located lying loose on the Edin's Hall Scheduled Monument. Local authorities were informed and the Whetstone retrieved appropriately.
Lammermuir Lidar data courtesy of The Whiteadder Project hosted on an underlying ESRI database.
This Lidar work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License