Girthgate
Road (Medieval)
Site Name Girthgate
Classification Road (Medieval)
Canmore ID 110838
Site Number NT54SW 16
NGR NT 5090 4225
NGR Description From NT 5090 4225 to NT 5000 4463
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/110838
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Melrose
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Ettrick And Lauderdale
- Former County Roxburghshire
NT54SW 16. from 5090 4225 to 5000 4463. LIN 5.
Formerly LIN 532.
The Girthgate reappears at a point where the road shown on the OS map (OS 1:10560, 1968) joins the highway 700 yds SSW of Threepwood. From there it may be traced for some two and a quarter miles to NT 4980 4543, where it leaves the county. This stretch lies wholly in enclosed ground, either arable or improved pasture. In the former the road appears as a low lynchet omiited from cultivation and in the latter as a vaguely-defined strip of finer, greener grass among the course tussocky growth on either side. There are no signs of construction anywhere, but the characteristic curving hollow of an old traffic track appears in the face of a bank (at about NT 5035 4298). There is also some slight hollowing at the W corner of the plantation (at NT 5020 4410). (RCAHMS 1956)
Visited by OS (JLD) 9 May 1955.
NT 5091 4225 to NT 5079 4237: the Girthgate runs between modern stone dykes, it is grassed over and shows no signs of construction.
NT 5079 4237 to NT 5041 4280: it would appear to have run between two stone walls the slight remains of which can be seen on the NE side of the modern dyke, again the course is grassed over with no trace of construction.
NT 5041 4280 to NT 5034 4398: the course lies along the east side of a modern dyke to NT 5034 4398, the ground sloping noticeably from E to W. No traces of a road could be seen between these points other than modern wheel-tracks. The course is marshy in places and is broken through here and there by water-worn hollows.
NT 5034 4398 to NT 5021 4410: the grassed-over course runs between modern stone dykes and from there along the W side of the modern dyke to NT 5000 4463. No traces of a roadway were seen.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 2 October 1962.
Publication Account (1915)
35. The ‘Girthgate’.
An ancient roadway bearing this name goes through the parish, entering near its south-west boundary and passing northward towards Soutra. The course of the road is shown on the accompanying map (fig. 15 [DP 225720]).
‘Girth’ was the name for a sanctuary enclosure, such as the famous ‘gyrth’ round St Duthac's Chapel in Tain, to which the wife and daughter of Robert Bruce fled for protection in 1306; while ‘gate’ is for ‘gait’ = road. This ‘girth-road’ is said to have gone down by the Allan Water to Melrose, but, though abbeys and churches generally had privilege of sanctuary, the special bearing of this road is on the ‘girth’ at Soutra Hospital.
See History of Channelkirk, p. 666.
OS Map: Ber., xiii. SW. (unnoted).
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
