Hunt Law

NT40NW 3 4110 0778 to 4055 0680.

Linear Earthwork, Hunt Law to Dryden Burn. This work extends from a point about 200 yds. NNW of the summit of Hunt Law to within 20 yds. of the left bank of Dryden Burn 80 yds. above the plantation at Dryden Linn. It is thus just over three-quarters of a mile in length, but its NE end may originally have extended some 80 yds. farther down a wet hollow which drains into Back Burn. In conjunction with this hollow, it probably formed the upper boundary of the lands lying on the left bank of the Teviot between Back and Dryden Burns.

It is best preserved on Hunt Law, but its dimensions and state of preservation vary from section to section and in the wet ground at the heads of Weens Sike, in particular, its traces become very faint. The

SW end of the work, where it descends to Dryden Burn, is associated with a field-enclosure and may therefore not be of the same origin as the remainder; it is possible that the original work may have ended at NT 407 068, whence a natural hollow drains down to Dryden Linn.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 1947

The earthwork is generally as described by RCAHMS, starting at NT 4110 0778 as a ditch c1.0m deep and c3.0m wide, with an upcast bank 0.4m high and 2.0m wide on its west side. After about 100.0m a second bank appears on the east side, and this double bank with medial ditch, 6.0m from crest to crest, continues down the slope of Hunt Law, fading gradually until it disappears at the head of Weens Sike, at NT 4096 0750. The ditch re-appears at c. NT 4089 0729 and, from then on, the earthwork is well-defined, sometimes with a single ditch, sometimes with two, and for a short stretch at c. NT 4075 0695 the west edge of the ditch is cut into the natural slope. The earthwork ends abruptly at NT 4055 0680.

Visited by OS (JTT) 10 March 1965