Archaeology Notes

Event ID 751519

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/751519

NT40SE 21 from 4696 0450 to 4973 0403. LIN 2.

Catrail (NR)

OS 6" map, 1923

The Object Name Book of the Ordnance Survey describes the 'Catrail or Picts' Work Ditch' as 'The remains of a trenched fortification which runs through the Counties of Roxburgh and Selkirk. At several places the ditch which has been of considerable depth can still be distinctly ?(seen) on the south side. In some districts the fortification is known as the Picts work ditch, but in this County it is well known as the Catrail a name which is said in British to signify the Dividing Fence.

Name Book 1861

From the left bank of the Langside Burn the ground rises steeply for some 650ft to the summit of The Pike, and this slope the Catrail mounts some-what obliquely, it course being now NW by N. On the lower part of the slope there are actually no traces to be seen, as cultivation has obliterated everything up to a height of some 350ft above the valley bottom; but from its point of reappearance it runs strongly up to the shoulder of The Pike, crosses it, swings to WNW, and then descends straight for a third of a mile to within some 70 yds of the Penchrise Burn. In this section the ditch is from 6ft to 9ft wide and up to 2ft 6in deep and the bank up to 10ft thick and 2ft high above ground-level. The work is somewhat broken up in a moss on the summit of the shoulder of The Pike, and on the steepest slopes the bank tends to be slighter than elsewhere. At spot-level 1398 there is a small quarry on the line of the work; it is completely turfed over and may be of considerable age. The remainder of this stretch below the quarry carries a slight spoil-bank on the SW side of the ditch.

At the point of disappearance above the Penchrise Burn the work seems to be swinging slightly N; this deviation was evidently intended to connect it with the adjoining section, which is aligned on a point some 40 yds farther downstream. This latter section after rising from the low ground in which the burn runs, swings W and crosses a flattish belt of moorland to the head of Barry Sike (NT 481 049)(** see footnote), a distance of nearly half a mile from the Penchrise Burn. This stretch of the work follows a somewhat uneven course and is interrupted twoards its W end by a moss and by several tracks of an old road. The road from Peelhopebrae to Stobs (Slitrig Water to Hermitage Water) likewise crosses it about its centre. Measurements taken in this section showed the ditch to be from 9ft to 12ft wide and from 2ft to 4ft deep; the main bank, on the N side, was 8ft to 10ft wide and up to 1ft 6in high above ground level; and the spoil bank about 8ft wide and of negligible height. It is clear that Barry Sike is intended to prolong the line of the earthwork for the remaining quarter of a mile to the Dod Burn.

West of the Dod Burn there is no sign that the work continued straight over the N shoulder of Gray Coat from the mouth of Barry Sike, but a section of ditch-and-bank earthwork 560 yds in length crosses the spine of this hill 500 yds S of the summit. This work does not begin on the bank of the Dod Burn itself, but at the head of a series of dry linear hollows which descend from the 1000ft contour and die out in the Dod Burn haugh at a point (NT 476 045) 450 yds upstream from Barry Sike. Where best preserved it is up to 18ft wide over all, is somewhat sinuous in layout and shows signs of having been dug in short sections; there are also traces, at several points, of the spoil-bank that is characteristic of the Catrail, while at least two portions are aligned on the easily visible notch that is made by the Catrail as it crosses the skyline of The Pike. The W end of the work ends abruptly on a bare hillside overlooking the Priesthaugh Burn from a height of about 1200ft (NT4696 0450), and the state of the vegetation shows that the soil beyond has never been disturbed at all. Nor is there any natural feature here by which the line could have been continued. The slope to the Priesthaugh Burn, however, very soon becomes abrupt and has certainly never been cultivated, and it is thus easy to suppose that the place of the earthwork was here taken by the upper edge of a block of valley-side scrub-wood extending to the top of another and quite comparable linear work about 1000 yds to the N (NT 471 054).

**(Smail gives another account of this section of the Catrail, implying that it turned N past the enclosure on Pyat Knowe (NT40NE 21 and NT40NE 22 ) and followed the course of the isolated length of earthwork (NT40NE 19) marked on the OS map as passing the fort on White Hill (NT40NE 20), Smail 1881). "There is no reason to regard this as forming any part of the Catrail, and evidence to connect it with the fort is likewise lacking" Smail ignores the remains seen at the head of the Barry Sike. (Information from OS WT).

RCAHMS 1956.

No trace of a linear earthwork was seen between NT 4699 0450 and NT 4662 0550.

Visited by OS (JTT) 25 February 1965.

NT 4866 0496 to NT 4817 0501. This section of the Catrail, which averages 0.6m deep runs across a fairly level moorland ridge shelf. It is covered by small peat bogs in three places in this short stretch. It terminates at, and just below the source, of a small burn called Barry Sike.

Visited by OS (MJF) 17 January 1980.

NT 4975 0405 to NT 4821 0499. This earthwork extends from the upper limit of once cultivated land to the W of the Langside Burn (NT 4997 0370). It runs steeply across the ridge of the Pike (NT 494 045), across the Penchrise Burn (NT 4886 0488) and a further, lower ridge of high ground to terminate at the head of the Barny Sike (NT 4815 0512). It is largely as described by RCAHMS with a definite ditch traceable over most its course, flanked on the N/NE by a main bank and on the S/SW by a slighter counterscarp bank. The overall dimensions are 5.5m-6.5m wide and 0.7m-1.2m high (see also NT40NE 58).

NT 4646 0480 to NT 4660 0510. This is a speculated section of the Catrail. It runs from the edge of a small copse of deciduous trees across the valley floor N of Priesthaugh Farm (NT 4655 0473) to a thicket. It consists of a low, rounded bank, much reduced by cultivation, and a very slight ditch on its E side. The bank is nowhere greater than 0.3m high, its cropmark being some 3m wide. It runs along a gap in the line of the Catrail, but it may simply represent an old drainage dyke.

Information from J Milln, in J Barber 1999.