CUTHBERTSHOPE, WITH NOTE ON DERESTREET 335 



Recently the present writer came across a place-name 

 which is worthy of being placed on permanent record, thus 

 to help to rescue it from oblivion, as it is undoubtedly 

 connected in some manner with the Border saint. To the 

 North of Bughtrig in Kalewater district there is, between 

 Bucht Burn and Yett Burn, an elevation rising 1000 ft. above 

 sea-level, and designated on the six-inch Ordnance Survey 

 maps " Cuthbertshope Rig." It obtained its name from the 

 fact that in the bifurcation made by the junction of Capehope 

 Burn and Yett Burn, and opposite the mouth of the ravine 

 named Ettlescleuch, there was since very early times a 

 hamlet termed Cuthbertshope. "Dope" signifies "a small 

 narrow vale whose hill-screens approach each other so closely 

 at the bottom as to leave scarcely any level ground." 

 Whether this place was founded by St. Outhbert during 

 one of his many missionary excursions among the Border 

 hills, or whether it was so termed in memory of his 

 religious zeal, will doubtless never be known; more probably 

 the latter is the case. The place-name never takes the 

 prefix "St."; and I do not find in the list of place- 

 names, etc., any trace that an ecclesiastical structure ever 

 stood there. 



As far back as the time of William the Lion there is 

 mention of this place. In that reign (1165-1214) William de 

 Hunum gave to the church of Melrose a tract of- land "from 

 the stream of Cuithenop all the way as far as the ditch 

 between Ravenshauue and Cuithbrithishope, and thus by 

 the whole boundary between Richard de Umframvill and 

 myself unto Derestreth towards the West, and from Dere- 

 streth descending as far as the boundary of Chatthou, and 

 thus by that boundary between Chatthou and me as far as 

 the stream of Cuithenop."'^ Before the year 1199 the gift 

 was confirmed by William the Lion, the place bearing the 



^ Charfcnlary of Melrose, i., p. 122. Chatthou is clearly the present 

 Chatto; Ravenshanne (later, Rashawe) I cannot identify; the "rivns 

 de Cuithenop" seems to be Capehope Burn, and indeed Innes, in the 

 map given in the Origines, places Cuithenop on the other side of the 

 burn from the present Capehope Yett; regarding Derestreth, I give 

 reasons in an appended note why we should believe it to be the old 

 Roman road. 



