NO 162 405. The Cleaven Dyke is a complex earthwork comprising a pair of parallel ditches (c.45m to 51m apart), with a central bank, running NW to SE for 1820m through woodland. A further 350m or so is visible as a cropmark (NO13NE 89) at the SE end. The central bank which is between 1m and 2m high and about 9m broad, appears to consist of conjoined dumps, and the ditch, where visible as a cropmark, appears to be made up of linked segments. Radiocarbon dating of samples from the first (1993) season has shown that the Dyke is a Neolithic monument, dating to before 3600BC (Barclay et al 1995).
A trench was opened immediately to the SE of the cross-section of the bank opened in 1993. It was an axial section along the bank designed to examine one of the apparent boundaries between two dumps. One of the characteristics of the bank is a lateral 'toe' of turf holding the gravel of the bank in place on each side. Richmond (Richmond 1940) demonstrated that at one of the constructed breaks in the bank the 'toeing' continued round the end of the bank segment. The 1995 section also showed that the NW of the two dumps was finished off at its SE end in the same way, the dump to the SE then being added. It seems likely therefore that the bank was constructed in segments.
On the old land surface there were few features. The most interesting was a shallow pit, the contents of which formed a low gravel mound immediately beside it. It is possible that this was one of a series of markers on the line of the bank.
Sponsors: British Academy, Russel trust, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Society of Antiquaries of London, Prehistoric Society, Historic Scotland.
G J Barclay and G S Maxwell 1995.
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