52 EEPORT OF THE MEETINGS FOR 1896 



ramparts ; on the side facing the Whitadder there are three ; 

 and towards the steep slope to the Kilmade Burn the number 

 falls to two. The fort has been a stone one, and the line of the 

 face-building can still be seen here and there. In the interior 

 there are several indications of hut circles and divisions, but 

 the whole are so badly ruined that without careful excavation 

 very little could be made of them. The entrance has been at 

 the north-west corner, and immediately outside several circular 

 hollows are observable, which have, no doubt, been the sites of 

 ancient dwellings." 



WALK TO PRIESTLAW, ETC. 



On the haugh, just at the foot of Snail's Cleugh, the con- 

 veyances were left, and the greater number of the party 

 proceeded on foot to Priestlaw and Penshiel. Mr Stephenson, 

 tenant of Cranshaws, had very kindly provided a horse and cart 

 to convey the party over the river at the various fords on the 

 route. Soon after passing Priestlaw, the glen down which the 

 Fasney flows opens up to view, with Priestlaw Hill on the south 

 and Spartleton towering on the other side of the Whitadder to 

 the north, the whole affording an exceedingly attractive 

 panorama of pastoral hill scener3^ 



Half-a-mile up the Fasney glen are situated the ruins of 

 what the Statistical Account calls Penshiel Tower, but which 

 are more probably the remains of a grange belonging to 

 Melrose Abbey. The most important part has been a building 

 84 feet long, by about 20 feet wide, which had been vaulted on 

 the ground floor along its entire length, and into which 

 doubtless the monks' cattle were driven at night for security. 

 Fragments of the vaulting can still be seen. Traces of 

 foundations of walls enclosing a court3'ard, and some other 

 erections, were visible, including what appears to have been a 

 small chapel, correctly orientated, and measuring 28 feet long 

 by 18 feet wide. The Abbey of Melrose held the whole of the 

 land from Kilmade Burn to the ridge behind Penshiel, their 

 neighbours on the north-west (embracing what is now known as 

 Mayshiel), being the monks of the Priory of the Isle of May. 

 [Appendix I.] To the north of the Whitadder the whole 

 region as far as Monynut Water, belonged to the monks of 

 Kelso, who had a grange on Spartleton, and a mill on the 

 Whitadder, probably near where Millknowe presently stands. 



