Caddon Water

NT44SW 6 40 42.

NT 403 428 The section profile of a 10m wide road terrace exposed at the top of the 2.5m high west bank of the Caddon Water flood plain marks the continuation of the Scroof Hill Roman road reported on NT44NW 23. The 250m length of roadway across the flood-plain from Scroof has been completely washed out.

The roadway terrace curves to run southward over the lower slopes of Broomylees Rig to a crossing of Cauld Cleuch at NT 401 420 then over Hersie Rig to Hersie Cleuch at NT 399 417. The heavy overgrowth of peat on road-lengths undisturbed by agriculture or heather-burning, the severe erosion at the Caddon Water and the major burn crossings, and the obviously secondary nature of the old narrow tracks and early cultivation rigs running on or across the road-line, all attest to the antiquity of the roadway. The uniform 9 to 11m width of the roadway on terrace, cleared-way or embankment, the central road-mound visible on many lengths, and the road sections exposed at burn crossings identify the structures as a Roman road, and confirm the same identification of the ancient road from the Lugate Water to Scroof previously reported. The road is probably part of a link route between the Tweed valley and Dere Street at the head of the Leader valley. A fort near Holylee at a junction of the Caddon Water and Tweed valley Roman roads seems highly probable. A fort here would be 19km equidistant from all of Lyne, Newstead and Oxton Roman forts.

W Lonie, B Lonie and F Newall 1989.