Monksford

NT53SE 8 5871 3248.

Immediately after crossing the public footbridge from Roxburghshire into Berwickshire, the "Old Monks' Road" proceeds in the direction of the ford across the Tweed. This road runs through the haughlands of Dryburgh, below the eminence on which stands the statue of William Wallace.

On the surface of the haughlands, and on the fields adjacent to the monument, considerable numbes of primitive implements are annually exposed by the plough. These consist mainly of scrapers, cores (some of which display a characteristic shoulder), and spalls, but include many pigmy implements, as well as sinkers, smoothers or polishers, and a series which may be called "notched flints". The material is mainly flint, chert, or quartz.

J M Corrie 1916

Recent additions to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS), Edinburgh, include a representative series of Tardenoisian artifacts, of various kinds of stone. They were found during ploughing on the Farm of Dryburgh Mains, both on the haugh and on two restricted areas on the upper plateau. (This article discusses these implements and their relationship to others found elsewhere, and gives many illustrations of them, including numbers of the "notched flints" referred to in Corrie 1916).

J G Callander 1927; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1927

An article by Corrie (1925) discusses stones chipped wholly or partially round the circumference on one face only, and refers to such an artifact found in Monksford Field, Dryburgh.

J M Corrie 1925

Collection of Tardenoisian implements from Monksford Field, Dryburgh, purchased for the NMAS 1933.

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1934

Flakes and implements from Monksford and Orchard Fields, Dryburgh Mains, donated to the NMAS, 1935.

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1936

Flint and chert mesolithic artifacts from Dryburgh Mains, donated to the NMAS, 1949-50.

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1952

Collection of mesolithic flint implements, flakes and cores, also anvil stones, from Dryburgh, donated to the NMAS 1950-1.

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1953

Concentration of finds shown in fields centred at NT 5852 3268, NT 5856 3243, NT 5883 3260, and NT 5894 3240.

Information from 6" map, anon., undated.

Area centred NT 5871 3248. The fields in which these finds were made were pointed out by the farmer of Dryburgh Mains, Monksford Field being centred at NT 5852 3268.

Visited by OS (JD) 26 May 1955

Beads, stone buttons, anvil stone, various stones and pebbles from Dryburgh Mains, purchased by the NMAS.

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1927

Dryburgh Mains farm has produced one of the largest concentrations of mesolithic flints in SE Scotland. A large collection is in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, and another is in the NMAS. The flints include many microliths. The site probably dates to between 4500 and 2500 BC.

E W Mackie 1975; H Mulholland 1970

NT 584 322. Many fine flint and chert tools were found, together with a great number of waste products, on the river terraces on Dryburgh Mains farm. Two arrowheads were found, one a crude leaf-shape and the other barbed and tanged. Retained by finders.

J W Elliot 1967

Two non-discrete chert and flint scatters (parts of NMRS NT53SE 8) were located using an intensive-systematic fieldwalking survey (at 5m and 10m intervals).

NT 587 324 Under 100 lithics were collected from the first field. These include waste, blades, chunks and cores, 77% of which are chert, the rest flint.

NT 585 328 Over 330 lithics were collected from the second field. Many more worked flakes and blades, including cores, notched flakes, scrapers and microliths were recovered. The scatter had uniform circular shape, and was spread across the whole field.

The material found from these scatters adds to the volume of lithics already accumulating from the fields around Dryburgh Mains. The characteristics of the material fits in well with previous analyses.

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

P Sharman 1998