Archaeology Notes

Event ID 720490

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/720490

NT72NW 15 7221 2683.

(NT 7221 2683) Stone (NR) (AD 1620).

OS 6"map, Roxburghshire, (1924).

Mound and Carved Stone, Haughhead Kip.

The mound known as Houghhead Kip crowns a natural hummock which rises from the plateau on the left bank of Kale Water opposite Grahamslaw. Composed of boulders and earth, it measures 75ft from E to W by 70ft from N to S ; its height on the E is 9ft and on the S up to 14ft. It is now grassed over, and had been enclosed and planted with trees (see RCAHMS 1956, fig.7).

On the summit there stands a modern stone "altar", in the top of which an inscribed slab of red sandstone, repaired and restored by Lady John Scott in 1854, has been inserted for its better preservation.

The inscription, which has been re-cut, runs:

HERE HOBY HALL BOLD(LY) MAINTAIND HIS RIGHT

GAINST REEF PLAIN FORCE ARMED W(ITH) LAWLES MIGHT

FOR TUENTY PLEUGHS HARNESD IN ALL THEIR GEAR

COULD NOT THIS VALIEN(T) NOBL HEART MAK FEAR

BUT W(ITH) HIS SWORD HE C(U)T THE FORMOSTS SOAM

IN TWO HENCE DROVE BOTH PLEUGHS AND / PLEUGH-MEN HOM(E)

The version given in the Statistical Account (OSA 1793) agrees substantially with the reading given here with the exception of the second word, which has been misread as HOLY; the author opines that the inscription commemorates "some rencounter the proprietor had, with those who had taken violent possession of his estate and were plowing his fields." (OSA 1793) Hobby Hall, son of the laird of Hevisyde, is on record in 1590 (Border Papers) and again in 1599. (Border Papers). RCAHMS 1956, visited 22 March 1933 and 5 June 1939.

The mound (a possible tumulus), still known as Haughhead Kip, and the inscribed stone are generally as described by the Commission. It is quite possible, however, that the mound was erected to accommodate the 'altar'.

Revised at 1/2500.

Visited by OS(RD) 13 November 1967.