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Edinburgh, Holyrood Park, Whinny Hill

Field System (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Edinburgh, Holyrood Park, Whinny Hill

Classification Field System (Period Unassigned)

Alternative Name(s) Queen's Park

Canmore ID 157236

Site Number NT27SE 3938

NGR NT 2797 7332

NGR Description NT 2797 7332 to NT 2784 7398

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/157236

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Edinburgh, City Of
  • Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District City Of Edinburgh
  • Former County Midlothian

Activities

Field Visit (15 December 1998)

NT27SE 3938 2797 7332 to NT 2784 7398

See also NT27SE 49.00 and 3975.

A system of field-banks extends across the N and E flanks of Whinny Hill, and can be followed for considerable distances before becoming lost in dense gorse thickets. The banks are largely grass-grown with some stone content, measuring between 2m and 2.5m in thickness and up to 0.5m in height, and appear to form a series of large enclosures, of which the most complete defines a pear-shaped area of hillslope immediately E of the summit of Whinny Hill. The banks forming the sides of this enclosure extend roughly NNW and SSE, the westernmost following the base of a natural hollow; the area they enclose measures at least 300m in length, narrowing from some 100m on the NNW to about 60m as they converge on the SSE. The southern end of the enclosure is obscured by gorse, but it probably terminates where the ground begins to fall more steeply. Traces of a bank continue downslope from this end of the enclosure, and is probably represented by a low rise beneath the gorse within the small plantation above the Queen's Drive. The construction of the road and Dunsapie Loch have obscured its course thereafter, but it may have crossed over to the foot of Dunsapie Crag. Its general line is taken up by the field-bank that rides across the rampart of the fort on top of Dunsapie Crag (NT27SE 49.00). Two other banks can be traced from the N end of the enclosure, one extending downslope to the E, and the other to the NNW on the floor of a shallow hollow. The junction between the E bank and the enclosure is lost in dense gorse, but the NNW bank butts onto the enclosure. To the NNW, it drops down the slope before turning to head NE. After an interruption of some 100m, it re-emerges from the dense gorse and can be followed N for a further 120m. The date of the banks is not known, but they appear to form a pattern of enclosure that probably precedes the enclosure of the Park in 1541. The system of banks is plotted at 1:5,550 on an archaeological map of Holyrood Park (RCAHMS 1999), and appears in part on the OS 1:1056 map in 1854 (Edinburgh and its environs 1854, sheet 37A).

Visited by RCAHMS (ARG), 15 December 1998.

NMRS, MS/726/96 (56-7, no. 43); RCAHMS 1999.

Condition Survey (7 August 2013)

NT 279 735 A condition survey was carried out on part of the NE portion of Whinny Hill after an area of grass and gorse thickets was damaged by fire. The affected area measured c200m E-W by 100m N-S and the fire had burnt out four large gorse thickets and left the areas between them scorched or badly burned. A potential low bank may be part of the larger scheme of field banks (undated) which can be traced on the plan in RCAHMS Broadsheet Number 6 (1998).

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

DES, P Fox 2013

Information from Paul Fox (Kirkdale Archaeology) August 2013. OASIS ID: kirkdale1-311431

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