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



an old Highland word signifying Vallum separationis, a wall or 

 ditch of separation." — Gordon, p. 104. Gordon also states, when 

 he speaks of it as crossing Borthwick water, he having traced it 

 across Selkirkshire to Borthwick water head, on the edge of Eox- 

 burghshire, ''here it is known by the name of the Catrail, but 

 northward of this place it is called the Picts-Work-Ditch.'' In a 

 ballad describing a Border fray one personage is described thus : 

 " The next ana was ane careless scemp, 

 Moss-mudded head and tail ; 

 Ye might trowed him the ghaist o' a' gurly Pict 

 "Wha had sheughed i' the grit Catrail." 



Then we have several places in the neighbourhood of the Cat- 

 rail bearing significant names. A few miles to the north of Tor- 

 woodlee, we have Muckle Oatpair and Little Catpair, two estates. 

 On the farm of Tinnis in Yarrow Water there is Cat Crag ; and 

 the Catrail crossed the higher part of this farm. Further on the 

 Catrail crossed the Gatslack Burn ; and close to Yarrow Feus 

 there are some indentations called the Cat Holes. In Roxburgh- 

 shire the Catrail crosses Harwood Burn, into which falls Gatlee 

 Burn. 



And may not " the Eings " at the northern termination of the 

 Catrail have by the name a colateral connection with the Wheel- 

 rig at its southern termination ? Eings and wheels are in some 

 cases somewhat similar terms in the south of Scotland. Besides, 

 as I have before stated, the vestiges of rings or wheels at each 

 termination of the Catrail exhibit a verisimilitude. Of course 

 the Wheel Causeway is ancient, and crosses the Wheelrig, and 

 may have been the means of originating the name both of that 

 part of land and of the Wheel Church. But who can tell ? One 

 writer thinks the Wheel Causeway was so named because its 

 centre was rounded, and composed of large stones which sloped 

 downward toward the respective edges of the road something like 

 a wheel ; and another states that the name was api)lied because 

 it was a road along which a machine with wheels could travel. 



The Maiden Way which " leaves the Eoman wall between the 

 Sol way and Tine," runs many miles and then crosses Dead Water 

 on to Wheelrig, where it assumes the name of the Wheel Cause- 

 way. There is, therefore, doubtless some perplexity as to the 

 origin of the names " the Rings," Wheebig, Wheel Church, and 

 Wheel Causeway, and at this time it would be a very difficult 

 matter to clear up the peculiar ramifications. Many theories 



