114 The Catrail, or Picts-Work-Ditch, by James Small. 



Though, pretty tired, and knowing we had still some six miles 

 to travel through deep spret and bent-grass, and across mossy 

 land, sometimes mid-body deep among fern or wet rush- 

 clumps, we could not resist climbing to the peak of this remark- 

 able hill ; and the view from it down Teviotdale amply repaid us 

 for our hard work. The peak or summit of Penchrise is very 

 small ; but it has been strongly fortified. Some 20 yards below 

 the peak two well-made ramparts, what would now be called 

 half -moon batteries, are nearly as plainly marked now as they 

 could possibly be when made. All this part of Penchrise, 

 though grass-covered, is composed of rock to within a few inches 

 of the surface, so that ramparts once made on such a place, were 

 certain to last for ages. 



Eeturning to the subject of the Catrail : from the summit of 

 Penchrise we had a fine view of it in the direction we had to 

 travel. Prom a point near to the before-mentioned Pyot's Nest, 

 it runs through some flattish soft land for about a mile, on which 

 it is traceable only here and there. It then ascends the Pike 

 hill, called the Carriage HiU by Gordon, 1516 feet in height, in 

 a broad deep straight line ; and passes over its highest point and 

 descends on the other side in the same way. This is by far the 

 best part of the Catrail at the present day. It is so deeply 

 marked, and from this, and the Pike hill being so high, it can be 

 seen distinctly six or eight miles off. Mr Elliot and I saw it as 

 plainly as the Pike itself from Mid Hill, some five miles to the 

 south of it. Gordon says of it here : "It mounts the Carriage 

 Hill, and is more conspicuous here than throughout its whole 

 track, being 24 and 26 foot broad, and very deep; the ramparts 

 on every side, 6 or 7 foot in perpendicular height, and each of 

 them 10 or 12 foot thick, the whole being great and visible." 

 The above measurements are niuch too great for this part of the 

 Catrail at the present day. But from the hardness of the Pike 

 hill, and from the depth and breadth of the Catrail still to be 

 found there, I have no doubt whatever but its lines will remain 

 clear and strong on this hill for hundreds of years to come. 



Next day Mr Elliot and I crossed from his farm, Langburn- 

 shiels, over the ridge of Shankend hill, and caught up the Cat- 

 rail at the southern base of the Pike. From that point we 

 traced it with ease to Poberts-linn, a distance of nearly three 

 miles. We came to a few short blank spaces, where the land 



