Bowerhouse

NT45SE 24 c. 495 507.

Bowerhouse (NT 495 507) is specially noted for the number of flint arrowheads, knives etc, which have been found in the fields adjacent to the steading. Mr John Fleming jun., the tenant of Bowerhouse has found several fine specimens: a double-edged flint knife, a scraper 2ins long, two stemmed arrowheads and part of a leaf-shaped arrowhead were in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland [NMAS] in 1894, on loan from him.

A Allan 1900; G F Black 1894

Local enquiries indicated that flint implements similar to those described above were in the possession of Mr J Runciman (Huntinton, Lauder), a nephew of Mr Fleming. He allowed his collection to be examined and it comprises: fifteen barbed and tanged arrowheads, one being of honey-coloured flint, three lop-sided arrowheads, five feaf-shaped arrowheads, two triangular arrowheads, a flint fabricator, and a flat bronze axe, measuring 4 1/8 ins by 2 7/8 ins.

Mr Runciman says that these were all found at or near the farm of Bowerhouse by employees of his uncle, whose custom it was to pay for them. This practice might have induced the importing of saleable items, which would account for the heterogeneous nature of the collection.

Visited by OS (CJP) 5 October 1956

Mr Runciman is now dead and his collection dispersed.

Visited by OS (BS) 21 August 1975

Mr Fleming donated a sandstone adze, measuring 4 ins by 2 1/4 ins across the cutting edge, found on Bowerhouse farm, to the NMAS in 1912 (Accession no: AF 620).

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1912

A flint knife, a flint scraper, and four flint arrowheads (two barbed-and-tanged, one lop-sided, and one hollow- based) from Borehouse (presumably Bowerhouse) farm, Oxton, were donated to the NMAS in 1926 by H J Glover, MD, Hawthorn Cottage, Oxton (Acc Nos: AA 208, AB 1560 and AD 1515-8 respectively).

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1927

Several flints from Bowerhouse are also in the NMAS (Accession nos: AB 1708-10, BMA 899-904, BMA 2160 and BMA 2223).

NMAS MS Accessions List

NT 496 505, 850ft OD. Microliths, Bowerhouse.

H Mulholland 1970

A leaf-shaped flint arrowhead and a flint scraper both from Bowerhouse and in the collection of T Scott ARSA, Bowden, are illustrated.

T Scott 1897

Six flints, five retouched, from Bowerhouse are in Wilton Lodge Museum, Hawick (HAKMG 3820-3825).

Museum Catalogue 1981