Archaeology Notes
Event ID 843082
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/843082
NY59NE 51 from 5999 9948 to 582 983. LIN 3.
Formerly LIN 529.
This is a branch road from the 'Wheel Causeway'.
From NY 5989 9937 a hollow track leads down, as marked by hachures on the current edition of the (NMRS record map) 1:10,000 OS map, to the Wormscleuch Burn opposite the mouth of Flush Sike (NY 597 992). In part of its course it is flanked by a second similar hollow. The crossing of the Wormscleuch Burn seems to have been long out of use, and it is clear that the volume of traffic using the branch road has been very much less than that carried by the Wheel Causeway proper at Bagraw Ford. The right bank of Wormscleuch Burn shows a ramped hollow, 6ft wide at the bottom, just below the mouth of Flush Sike. No certain traces of the road were found between this point and the beginning of the linear hollow marked "Catrail" (NY59NE 4; from NY 5889 9862 to NY 5928 9874) (marked on the OS 6 inch (Roxburgh 1925, sheet 36 SW). This hollow, here 8ft wide, is again quite certainly an old road, but the gap of 1000yds that separates it from the remains on the Wormscleuch Burn makes their original continuity, probable though it is, a matter of inference only.
From the point last mentioned this branch road can be followed, though sometimes with difficulty, along the line indicated by the current edition of the (NMRS record map) 1:10,000 OS map; it appears as a hollow of varying breadth and in places has been recut as a drain. At the Holy Grain there are two hollows, one broad and one narrow. S of the railway there is a length of terraced track about 15ft wide with hollows beside it, and all these tracks are cut off by the modern road between 100yds and 200 yds E of the bridge over the Caddroun Burn.
A short length of the Wheel Causeway reappears just above the settlement (NY59NE 2), but SW of this point nothing more can be seen; it is possible that the modern highway, whichborders the Liddel Water on its right bank, may have obliterated all trace of its earlier counterpart or, alternatively, that the old road ay have crossed to the left bank hereabouts." "A map dated 1590 (British Museum Royal MS 18.D.IV. cf 76), 1590) marks a section of it on the left bank of the Liddel Water, above Thorlieshope (NT 57133 96531), but nothing is to be seen here today."
Information from OS (DT) 31 Oct 1957.
RCAHMS 1956.
The feature on the current edition of the (NMRS record map) 1:10,000 OS map is actually the remains of an old road, the full course of which cannot be ascertained on this sheet.
From the Bellingham roadside to the disused railway, the old road appears mainly as a terrace way c.7m to 8m wide.
From the disused railway to NY 592 988 the road appears as a hollow way 9m-10m wide and c.1m maximum depth. At the Holy Grain, it appears as two hollow ways. The upper reaches of this streth merge into many natural water courses and the actual course of the road must end at NY 592 988.
From NY 592 988 to the Wormscleuch Burn there are no traces in mossy ground much cut-up by drains.
The section from Wormscleuch Burn to the crest of Wheel Rig can be traces as a mutilated and shallow hollow way 3m-5m wide and 0.8m maximum depth. It ends near the crest of Wheel Rig with no traces beyond on this sheet.
Information from OS (MD) 6 Oct 1960.
