Transactions. 9 1 



name, Abbey Sike, attaches to a spot on the high road, just 

 where it skirts Dawston Rigg ; and there is a tradition that a 

 religious house once stood there, and that crosses and other stones 

 have been dug up on the spot and taken away, but I could not 

 gain any definite information on the subject. However, what it 

 is very important to note is the fact that this mysterious Catrail 

 work is seen crossing the flank of the hill, dipping towards the 

 ravine, and making its way towards the Roman road ; and that 

 here, to all appearance, it ends its course — a course extending all 

 along the backbone of the Lowlands, from the Pentlands to the 

 westernmost outj)osts of the Cheviots. 



Without entering upon the vexed and difficult question as to 

 the date, origin, and purpose of this Picts' Work, I may say that 

 it appears to me to have been almost convincingly demonstrated 

 that it never was or could have been intended as a wall or 

 barrier, and that it must have been a protected way — a road 

 traversing a rough and dangerous country, and defended by a 

 ditch and a turf and earth wall, formed by the material dug from 

 the ditch, which might possibly have been originally strengthened 

 by stakes. Its purpose, then, almost certainly, must have been 

 that of enabling armed forces to traverse an unfriendly country 

 on their way to fields of battle or plunder beyond. That is to 

 say, it may have been, and piobably was, a road by which the 

 Picts of the north, whose southern outposts were the Pentland 

 or Pechtland Hills, crossed what once had been the border 

 Roman province of Valentia, to reach the more desirable 

 territory of the Romanised Britons in the south, which all early 

 history tells us they ravaged so unmercifully after the withdrawal 

 uf the Romans. One can quite understand why the work should 

 terminate here, after striking the Maiden Way, for that road 

 would afterwards serve the purposes of the invaders. There is a 

 difficulty, of course, in understanding or realising the condition 

 of the country traversed by the Catrail, rendering so extensive 

 and elaborate a work necessary. When we consider, however 

 that it would be largely tilled with forest and morass, and that 

 numerous swift-flowing rivers had to be crossed, there would be 

 an absolute necessity for tlie construction of a road of some kind • 

 and by following the water-shed, keeping, however, always well 

 down on the eastern slope, the best route for steering clear both 

 of bog and jungle would be taken. A manifest imitation of the 

 Roman metliod of crossing the country would suggest that these 



