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Deil's Jingle, Castle O'er Estate

Linear Earthwork(S) (Medieval)

Site Name Deil's Jingle, Castle O'er Estate

Classification Linear Earthwork(S) (Medieval)

Alternative Name(s) Yetbyre; Bank Head Hill

Canmore ID 67314

Site Number NY29SE 2

NGR NY 25469 91840

NGR Description NY 25376 91144 to NY 25852 93967

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/67314

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

  • Council Dumfries And Galloway
  • Parish Eskdalemuir
  • Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
  • Former District Annandale And Eskdale
  • Former County Dumfries-shire

Archaeology Notes

NY29SE 2 253 911 to 258 939

(NY 253 911 to NY 283 965) Deil's Jingle (NR)

OS 6" map (1957).

See also NY29SW 10 and NY29SE 4.

The 'Deil's Jingle', which extends from NY 253 911 to NY 283 965 (see map diagram) is a linear feature comprised of detached portions of a ditched mound similar to the "Deil's Dyke" (see LIN 111), for which Graham and Feachem, in the absence of dating evidence, suggest a Dark Age origin. (Information from O G S Crawford 16 March 1939)

RCAHMS 1920, visited 1912; A Graham and R W Feachem 1956

Linear earthwork perambulated from NY 2534 9112 to NY 2600 9419. (See map diagram).

Revised at 25".

Visited by OS (WDJ) 29 August 1962 and (DWR) 16 October 1973

No change to previous field report.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (BS) 17 October 1978

Activities

Field Visit (August 1980)

Castle O'er Estate

The existence of linear earthworks around Castle O'er fort (NY29SW 10) was first noted by William Roy in the mid-eighteenth century. In 1896, Richard Bell, a local antiquary, recorded an extensive system of 'trenches' on a map of the Castle O'er estate; this map is now in the Dumfries Museum. Although many of the features recorded by Bell appear to be old roads, tracks and stream gullies, there can be little doubt that large areas around the Castle O’er fort were once enclosed by linear earthworks in conjunction with natural features. Two of the linear earthworks (A and B) were probably constructed later than the annexes to Castle O'er Fort, but this need not preclude them from being broadly contemporary with a phase of the occupation of the fort.

P NY 253 911 to 258 939; the Dell's Jingle, a linear earthwork which runs intermittently for about 6km from the head of the Rennald Burn to the confluence of the Black and White Esks. The Deil's Jingle, clearly post-dates the construction of the settlement NY29SE 4 and is probably a medieval estate boundary. The boundary of the lands of Tomleuchar and Watcarrick, which were granted to Melrose Abbey in the 12th century, ran 'by the back of Harewude, and so descends to where the two Esks meet'. By the 17th century this may have been fossilised as the march of the tennandry of Dumfedling, subsequently becoming the boundary of the parish of Eskdalemuir in 1703; parts of the parish boundary, and the march of the lands of Yetbyre, apparently coincide with the course of the Deil's Jingle on estate maps of 1718 and 1810.

RCAHMS 1980, visited August 1980

(SRO, RHP 9629; Roy 1793, 120; Stat. Acct., xii, 1794, 607; Fraser 1878, ii, 467-8; Armstrong 1883, 147 and Appendix, p. viii, no. iii; Christison 1898, 159-62, 360-2; Bell 1905; RCAHMS 1920, pp. 71-3, Nos. 176-7; NMRS, DFD/156/1, DFD/157/1, DFD/303/39-4-2)

Note (1997)

NY 253 911 - 258 939 NY29SE 2

Listed as linear earthwork.

RCAHMS 1997.

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