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Heriot's Dyke
Linear Earthwork (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Heriot's Dyke
Classification Linear Earthwork (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 260586
Site Number NT64NE 31
NGR NT 680 480
NGR Description From NT 6500 4987 to NT 6999 4848
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/260586
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Greenlaw
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Berwickshire
- Former County Berwickshire
NT64NE 31 from 6500 4987 to 6999 4848. LIN 6.
Formerly LIN 531.
NT 6500 4987 to NT 6800 4871: There is no trace of the dyke (JD 1955; RD 1970).
At NT 6600 4945: Probable course of dyke, "Across N side of Harelaw Moor (NT 659 491), a short distance to the S of Virtue Well (NT 66198 49454)." (Craw 1928).
NT 675 488 to NT 6999 4848: A stretch of the earthwork (NT 7006 4848 to NT 7175 4842; see NT74NW 40) actually begins at NS c.705 484, some 430yds W of the conspicuous stop-butt (NT 7083 4845) of an abandoned rifle range, and three-eighths of a mile E of Fangrist Burn (NT 69 48). The portion W of this is not part of Heriot's Dyke as suggested by the RCAHM, but is a hollow roadway and some associated field dykes, this portion approximating to the line of a small watercourse, the Snaw Burn, which, though now dried up, was once considerable enough for the farm tracks which crossed it to have required causeways, and a deeply hollowed track, probably connected to that on the E flank of Halliburton Hill (NT 6785 4880), flanks the left bank in the stretch above the gully on an alignment similar to that of the earthwork ditch further E (NT64NE 2). This confusion between the road hollow and the ditch has been made worse by the presence of turf dykes, no doubt once field boundaries, along the S edge of the former.
The apparent terminal of the earthwork itself is 20ft W of (below) a fence running N-S which is not marked on the OS 6 inch. It is possible that the bank may have extended another 60yds further W, but disturbances resulting from the hollowing-out of the roadway has obscured the traces. The earthwork, however, was evidently meant to give place to the Snaw Burn as soon as this had grown large enough to act as an effective landmark. It runs W-E across the moor for c.1900yds and before its E terminal was destroyed it ended on the Flourishwalls Burn at NT 721 484 (see mapsheet NT74NW).
AT NT 6784 4878: The dyke runs over the N shoulder of Halliburton Hill, probably within 100yds off summit (Craw 1928).
NT 6800 4871 to NT 6999 4848: No trace of this dyke, merely a track in the heather (JD 1955).
NT 6868 4854 to NT 6985 4840: The dyke crosses a corner of a cultivated field, descends obliquely to Fangrist Burn (at NT 6985 4840) and up the left bank of a small feeder, as a trench deepened by water. (2)
Visited by OS (JD) 1955
Information from OS
J H Craw 1928; A Graham 1964.
