Catrail

Site visited by Scottish Borders Council Archaeology Service. Information from SBC

The Catrail

1984

Linear Earthwork

NT 501 036 to 531 026. Eleven sections and two horizontal areas were opened over the length of this bank and ditch within the Stennishope forestry plantation for the purpose of examining the morphology of the monument and obtaining samples of buried soil profiles and ditch sediments for dating analysis. The bank which had been placed on the N side of the ditch was found to be of single phase construction, earth built and with a core or foundation of turfs. The ditch in some places had been recut and the upcast material from it dumped on the S side in discrete piles. In the central sector the bank was constructed of quarried stone rubble from the rock-cut ditch.

Strong, P., 1984, Discovery and Excavation in Scotland 1984, CBA

The Catrail consists of a linear earthwork with an upcast bank to the south. Although the exact use of such an earthwork is not known, it is thought to date from the time of the Anglian colonists (AD600 - 900) moving north into the area. Certainly it is of no obvious military value and therefore was likely to have been a landmark in the form of a boundary. Much of the Catrail appears to define the upper limit of a wide stretch of country suitable for stock raising and some agriculture on the better areas.

In most places, the monument can be traced as a ditch with an upcast bank on the south. The ditch is up to 3m wide and 0.7m deep, the bank is spread to 4m.

Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.

Information from Scottish Borders Council