Yarlside

The fields around Yarlside have revealed a number of prehistoric flint artefacts over the years. Several are held in the National Museum of Scotland, while others were last recorded in the collections of the Wilton Lodge Museum, Hawick.

At least some of these flints are microliths: tiny blades and points which would have been used collectively in a larger composite object, such as a harpoon or a spear. Microliths are characteristic of the Mesolithic, around 8,000 years ago.

The dense concentration of artefacts encountered at Yarlside suggests that the area was the site of a settlement in Mesolithic times. Contemporary sites investigated elsewhere have indicated that people lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. They moved frequently to exploit different natural resources, and consequently, they tended to live in temporary campsites. Traces of these insubstantial structures would have been obliterated long ago at Yarlside, which has seen thousands of years of agricultural activity since the Mesolithic period.

Text prepared by RCAHMS as part of the Accessing Scotland's Past project

NT63NW 21 617 386.

Flints from Yarlside (NT 617 386) are in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS, Accession nos: BMA 933-4).

NMAS Mss Accessions list.

NT 617 387, 450ft OD Microliths, Yarlside.

H Mulholland 1970.

A further 12 flints, 7 retouched, from Yarlside are in Wilton Lodge Museum, Hawick (HAKMG 3264-3275).

Museum Catalogue (typescript, compiled 1981).