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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 outposts 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 probably 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 
of the Romans. One can quite understand why the work should 
terminate here, after striking the Maiden Way, for that read 
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 filled with forest and morass, and that 
numerous swift-flowing rivers had to be crossed, there would be 
an absolute necessity for the 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 method of crossing the country would suggest that these 
