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Galashiels, The Birks

Linear Earthwork (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Galashiels, The Birks

Classification Linear Earthwork (Period Unassigned)

Canmore ID 88101

Site Number NT43NE 50

NGR NT 4798 3590

NGR Description From NT 4798 3500 to NT 4702 3788

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/88101

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Scottish Borders, The
  • Parish Galashiels
  • Former Region Borders
  • Former District Ettrick And Lauderdale
  • Former County Selkirkshire

Archaeology Notes

NT43NE 50 from 4798 3500 to 4702 3788. LIN 11.

Formerly LIN 528.

For northern part of LIN 11 see NT43NE 49 and southern parts see NT43SE 38 and NT43SE 39.

The Catrail or Pictswork Ditch [NR] (Remains & Site of) [NAT]

OS 6-inch map, Selkirkshire (1st ed), 1863, sheet iv

Between Blynlee and The Birks (at NT 4219 3763 as indicated by RCAHMS (1957); not to be confused with The Birks at NT 4816 3660 as annotated in the current edition of the OS 1:10,000 map (1983)), the Galashiels-Peebles road is flanked on the NE by the very steep slope of the railway-cutting. To judge from Kemp's (1877) description, the Gala Water had already formed a steep declivity in approximately this position before the railway was built; and according to him a linear earthwork, which he regarded as being continuous with NT43NE 49 and NT43SE 39, once ran along its lip. It was, however, already being undermined by the action of the river by the middle of the 19th century. He states further that this earthwork ran on through the fields to Kilnknowe (NT 4787 3723), just N of the cutting, beyond which it turned SE and S on to the line of NT43SE 39; and that good sections of it were exposed when the railway-cutting near Kilnknowe was made.

What are presumably two fragments of this work can still be seen on the lip of the cutting between Blynlee and The Birks, in the form of a greatly wasted ditch and bank; but their condition is now so bad that, without Kemp's statements and Lynn's record of a more recent interference, there would be no reason for regarding them as other than parts of an old farm-boundary. One of these lengths of earthwork spans a small gully which discharges down the slope near BM 502.4. The portion E of the gully is only 26ft long, the ditch, where free from interference, being up to 10ft wide by 2ft deep from the top of the bank, which is 8ft thick and lies between the ditch and the cutting. The W portion is about 40 yds long, but is too indefinite for measurement. The other fragment is just opposite the point where the avenue leading to The Birks branches off the Peebles road. Here the bank is on the SW side of the ditch, away from the lip of the cutting; it is from 6ft to 8ft thick and stands up to 4ft high above the ditch bottom. The ditch may originally have been about 6ft wide, but it has been somewhat encroached on as the lip of the slope has crumbled.

Nothing can now be seen in the fields NW of Kilnknowe, where the OS map marks the site of the work on the line described by Kemp; while at and S of the farm the ground has either been built over or fatally interfered with in other ways.

Saving the possibility of an extension to Torwoodlee (see also NT43NE 49) the N end of this earthwork might well be supposed to have rested on the Gala Water; it cannot now, however, be identified with certainty anywhere N of Mossilee (at NT4800 3590), and this may consequently have been its original terminus - the Mossilee and Bakehouse Burns @ having served, perhaps, as a natural boundary-line to the Gala Water beyond that point. A notice in the small public garden at the NW end of Woodside Place, Galashiels, @ records that the "Catrail or Picts Dyke", which is described as a "pathway", formerly traversed this area, and its breadth is marked on the ground by two large stones set 18ft apart; but in view of the common confusion of earthwork and road this record should not be accepted as fully conclusive notwithstanding its entire probability and Kemp's (1877) corroborative testimony. It is even possible, of course, that traffic may here or elsewhere have utilised the ditch of the earthwork, wearing away the bank and flattening and widening the ditch until all distinctive features had entirely disappeared. A similar doubt attaches to a faintly marked hollow, 15ft in width, which runs along the lower edge of the Galashiels cricket-field (NT 481 364). At Mossilee an old road appears without any doubt, approaching the left bank of the Mossilee Burn round the E side of the house; and it may be noted that this is not in alignment with the N end of the earthwork where this can first be positively identified on the right bank, as the earthwork is aligned on the position of the modern bridge some 85 yds upstream.

The OS map is undoubtedly right in its record of the earthwork's course through the fields lying S of the Mossilee Burn. The farmer at Mossilee stated that the work ran under the stackyard on the right bank of the burn (NT 4798 3590), and appeared from time to time as a crop-mark on the rising ground beyond. On the date of visit, very slight superficial traces, with a paler colouration of the stubble, could be seen running on from a point about 170 yds SSW of the farm (NT 479 358); and it was clear that the line so marked, which crossed over the rise in the ground in preference to turning its extremity, was quite unlike the probable course of a road.

Along the NE edge of the next field, E of S from NT 480 354, the line is marked by a slight hollow which runs between the field wall and the modern farm-road; though in the next field again, which extends to Stannis Burn (NT 4811 3520), even this has been obliterated. South of Stannis Burn, however, for just over a quarter of a mile, the work is in better preservation, (It deteriorated noticeably, as a result of deep tractor ploughing, between the visits paid in 1945 and 1946.), and in fact it is only in this section that the ditch and bank can be properly identified and measured (from NT 4800 3510 to NT 4792 3469; see also NT43SE 39). Though wasted at its lower end almost to the condition of a terrace, some 26ft wide over all, as it mounts the field towards a wood (NT 480 349) the work clearly shows its character as a ditch 9ft wide and very shallow, with a bank on its W side which is spread to a breadth of 14ft. Its alignment is typically irregular.

Visited by RCAHMS 19 October and 26 November 1946.

W Kemp 1877; F Lynn 1898; RCAHMS 1957.

NT 4702 3787 - NT 4712 3773: S of the Avenue to the point where the Peebles to Galashiels road crosses the Red Burn, there are no definite traces of the earthwork, although as stated by RCAHMS (RCAHMS 1957), hollow-ways of an old road lead up from this point and curve northwards towards the modern mansion.

NT 4712 3773 - NT 4718 3765: No traces between road and railway, but a slight terrace-way in the wooded policies of 'The Birks', at NT 4719 3763, would appear to be the course of the earthwork.

NT 4723 3759 - NT 4728 3750: From this point the modern road and erosion of the embankment above the railway destroy all traces of the earthwork.

NT 4728 3750: A small section of ditch, with bank (3m broad) on upper (S) side, appears in the wood. The ditch is about 1m deep.

NT 4728 3750 - NT 4742 3742: No trace: the ground has slipped here, destroying all traces.

NT 4742 3742 - NT 4753 3741: Ditch with slight traces of bank on S side interrupted in two places by stream-erosion, and ending abruptly on the embankment of the railway line. Here, another short length of hollow-way occurs 4m to 5m to the SE of the earthwork.

There are no traces of the earthwork beyond the last mentioned point as shown on the OS map, to NT 4800 3509, beyond Mossilee farm.

NT 4792 3720 - NT 4801 3511. There are no traces of the earthwork in this section, The "faintly marked hollow which runs along the lower edge of the Galashiels cricket-field" (OS 6 inch map, 1900) would appear to be a modern track.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 19 January 1961.

NT 4750 3748 - NT 4815 3644: No trace.

NT 4815 3644 - NT 4810 3638: A level grassy terrace 3.9m wide; however this may have been formed by construction of the adjacent cricket pitch.

NT 4810 3638 - NT 4800 3600: No trace.

Visited by OS (TRG) 2 March 1977

In 1480, the ranger of yarrow got 2000 'vangorum et tribulorum' i.e. spades and forks. These may have been used for making ditches and banks to form the bounds of the stedes in Ettrick Forest, bounds which still seem to be shown on the OS maps. That they were used for planting is doubtful.

M L Anderson 1967

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