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'Dere Street': Border - Newstead - Elginhaugh
Roman Road (Roman)
Site Name 'Dere Street': Border - Newstead - Elginhaugh
Classification Roman Road (Roman)
Alternative Name(s) Shibden Hill; Whitton Edge; Scaw'd Law
Canmore ID 58005
Site Number NT71NW 52
NGR NT 7499 1755
NGR Description NT 7499 1755 to NT 7154 1999
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/58005
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Oxnam
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Roxburgh
- Former County Roxburghshire
NT71NW 52 from 7499 1755 to 7154 1999 RR 2.
Formerly RR 8f.
From NT 1509 1736 to the summit of Scaw'd Law, the road-mound is poorly preserved and much broken up on wet ground but appears quite clearly on the drier slopes. Quarry-pits may be seen on this stretch. On the slope of Scaw'd Law the mound is 27 ft broad, with a flat top 12 ft wide standing about 1 ft 4 in above the bases of the stone dykes that flank the mound closely on either side. On the N side of the summit a similar mound continues, standing even higher, with a hollow on the E until rock-terracing begins.
After leaving Scaw'd Law, Dere Street has to descend about 150 ft in a quarter of a mile to the valley NE of Cunzierton, with a longer and gentler rise beyond to Whitton Edge. The descent includes two steeper sections of 1 in 7, on the upper of which the roadway is partly terraced out from the hillside, with some rock-cutting on the E, but it is doubtful if any early features are preserved here, as the road is still partly in use for agricultural purposes and on such steep slopes all early work is likely to have been worn and washed away. Here, in fact, the rock is laid bare in more than one place, at a level probably corresponding with the foundations of the original road. Pitching is visible here and there on the steep slope, but its age is quite uncertain. The lowest part of the ascent on the NW side of the valley is 1 in 10'5, and at the top of this road-mound again becomes visible; the upper part of this slope is 1 in 19, and a final short rise, near the summit of Whitton Edge, is 1 in 8. Quarry-pits may be seen except where the adjoining ground is or has been under cultivation. The last stretch, of 1000 yds, is straight, but is not alined on any natural feature. On Whitton Edge Dere Street turns from NW to S of W, and is now represented by a stretch of the modern road that runs from Hownam to Oxnam by Shothead. Where Dere Street joins the modern road its mound, which rises about 3 ft above the centre of the latter, is cut squarely off, the SW side of the mound being also worn away by a traffic-track which turns on to it from the modern road. The original corner was not here but inside the plantation (now felled), just N of the modern road; the actual corner has disappeared in a wet hollow which has been formed here by traffic, but remains of the mound can be seen quite clearly running WSW from where the corner has been. The curve can be reconstructed, and its radius seems to have been about 140 ft. The mound can be traced here for a length of more than 40 yds, decreasing in width from 21 ft until it tails off, worn by a traffic-track on the W, just before the wet hollow at the head of Cowhill Burn; its alinement
is converging with that of the modern road, with which it probably coalesces about NT 7381 1894.
Between spot-level 959 and BM 931.5, two over-grown but not certainly Roman quarry-pits can be seen near the modern quarry that is marked on the OS map. From NT 7343 1892 where the modern road swings N of W, the ancient road-mound, now some 25 ft broad but so much over-grown as to be hard to distinguish exactly, appears immediately S of the modern road and can be traced on the moorland for about 80 yds, diverging slightly from it. After a break where it passes into the old arable field to the W, it reappears descending the steep slope some 450 yds to the Cessford Burn - first swinging slightly to the S, then to the WNW, and finally fading out in the wet ground near the burn-crossing at NT 7286 1911.
The line of Dere Street on the slope just described can be readily traced, as the old rigs have avoided the belt of ground that was too stony for the plough. Beyond the burn-crossing the modern road is probably on line to sheet edge (NT 7154 1999).
Visited 1944-5.
RCAHMS 1956.
NT 7499 1755 - NT 7491 1772 Slight mound evident in places but worn down by vehicles.
NT 7491 1772 - NT 7482 1789 Extant.
NT 7482 1789 - NT 7474 1801 No remains.
NT 7474 1801 - NT 7457 1828 Fragments of mound evident in places.
NT 7457 1828 - NT 7423 1866 Slight mound evident but worn by vehicles. NT 7423 1866 - NT 7417 1873 Extant.
NT 7417 1873 - NT 7408 1883 Slight traces of agger in places.
NT 7408 1883 - NT 7400 1895 Extant.
NT 7400 1895 - NT 7398 1897 No trace.
NT 7398 1897 - NT 7392 1896 Extant.
NT 7392 1896 - NT 7344 1890 No trace.
NT 7344 1890 - NT 7295 1901 Extant.
NT 7295 1901 - NT 7286 1911 No trace.
NT 7286 1911 - NT 7154 1999 No trace. Modern road probably on line.
Visited by OS (EGC) May 1968.
Field Visit (31 August 2015 - 1 September 2015)
Series of small overgrown quarry scoops along line of boundary wall.
To the north west the line of visible quarry scoops were assigned a possible
roman origin to construct the roman road that forms the SW site boundary of
the site and these are likely a continuation of those.
Information from OASIS ID: addymana1-223368 (J Morrison) 2015
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.
Information from Scottish Borders Council
