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Field Visit
Date October 1955
Event ID 1122765
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1122765
NT 189 351. Dead Wife's Grave (Site).
No remains of any structure are to be seen at the point marked "Dead Wife's Grave" on the 6-inch O.S. map, where the old road from Dawyck Mill to the Manor Water passes through a gate in the parish boundary-dyke. Here, according to Armstrong (1775, 34) "it is said, a female Hibernian, sharing the perilous fate of her husband, fell a sacrifice to the forward zeal and inveteracy of the country people". Chambers, who also records this tradition (1864, 434), suggests with much probability that the victim was a fugitive from the battle of Philiphaugh (1645). Montrose's army included a large contingent of Scottish Macdonalds from Antrim, who would naturally have been regarded as Irish and many of these with their female followers were massacred after the battle by country folk, or, as John Buchan considers more likely ('Montrose', 293), by the Covenanting troops.
RCAHMS 1967, visited October 1955.
