Rubers Law

Trip No.93  Entry No.2  Date Added: 31st Aug 2018
Site Type: Hillfort Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 29th Aug 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Rubers Law (only seen from a distance): This impressive hill fort dominates the area. We decided it was too far and too high to attempt today, although I was fascinated by its changing profile as we drove along the minor roads to Bedrule. We will come back when we're feeling fit and strong - it looks like a long walk, gaining height very quickly over a relatively short distance.

I stopped to take photo from the well house (MP 93.1), then at various points along the route:
1. NT 57304 12321
2. NT 59495 15298 By entrance to track signposted to Rubers Law
3. NT 59965 17983 From Bedrule Parish Church

Bedrule Parish Church

Trip No.93  Entry No.3  Date Added: 31st Aug 2018
Site Type: Sculptured Stone Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 29th Aug 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Hogback fragments, Bedrule Parish Church: (note for less mobile visitors, whilst access into the churchyard is on a tarmacked path, there are some steps up into the porch where these fragments are stored. Disabled access is signposted but the door was locked at the time of our visit). This parish church is in the tiny hamlet of Bedrule. We could see the church from the minor road, but had to go virtually through the village and turn south past a row of small cottages to reach the church. There was a small car park outside the churchyard gates. Rubens Law is to the south and dominates the view, which is rather nice.

The western side of the churchyard is divided into a series of ’garden rooms’, each with a small collection of interesting, old grave slabs, some dating to the 1650s.

The hogback fragments were inside the porch, along with a small stone with recumbent, robed figure. The fragments were underneath the small table with prayer and hymn books, so we moved the table out of the way (and replaced it), to photograph the fragments.

Fast Castle (Bedrule)

Trip No.93  Entry No.4  Date Added: 31st Aug 2018
Site Type: Misc. Earthwork Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 29th Aug 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Fast Castle/Bedrule Motte: Not far from Bedrule Church this motte is marked on the map. At first it just appeared as a mound behind some trees, and we weren’t going to stop, until we realised the tree cover finished and the motte was clearly visible from the track going to Bedrule Mill. We let ourselves in through the gate and stopped to photograph this impressive mound. It sits by a bend in the very pretty river Rule.

Cavers Cross

Trip No.93  Entry No.5  Date Added: 31st Aug 2018
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 29th Aug 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Cavers Cross, near Hawick: From the motte, we drove round to Cavers – a very nicely kept estate, with well kept verges and few places to park along the straight, narrow road by the houses. In the end, we pulled right up to the fence at the largish entrance to a field gate at NT 54235 15805, intending to run back to the car if anyone thought we were in the way.

Walking south west towards the houses (I didn’t even recognise the Auld Kirk, as its been converted into a house with large driveway), we couldn’t see anything resembling a cross. There was a lady who was painting her fence and her large dog, who barked at us and sniffed my hands. I asked her if she knew of the remains of the cross, and she said, “Yes, but it’s only small”. She showed us where it was ‘hiding’ – behind a fence and shrubs in deep shade, then behind its own wooden fence, now much broken. She gave us permission to go into the garden of the holiday cottage as there was no-one there at the time of our visit. Whilst the Canmore record mentions the base of the cross (with the metal bands much visible), nothing is mentioned about the shaft it currently holds. This is of red sandstone and shaped, although much moss-covered.

Moving a small bit of stone near the join of the shaft and the base, there is evidence of a straight cut for part of the socket hole. We didn’t’ see any dowel holes, as the surface was moss and twig covered, but then the report that mentions this is dated 1933!

Midshiels Cairn

Trip No.93  Entry No.7  Date Added: 31st Aug 2018
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 29th Aug 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Midshiels Cairn: Having been warned about the large cattle who might "go for us if they saw us", I was cautious about walking the additional 100m from the standing stone to the cairn. Andrew decided that as the cattle were at the far end of the field, and though large, looked relatively docile. “If they come for me I can always leap over the fence (to the railway embankment)”, he said, so I gave him the camera and left to explore the cairn, which seemed much further away than the standing stone, but in reality was only around 90m away.

The Canmore entry of 1948 says the cairn was ‘planted with trees’, although it is now only covered in grass.

Borthwick Mains

Trip No.93  Entry No.8  Date Added: 31st Aug 2018
Site Type: Class I Pictish Symbol Stone Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Couldn't find on 29th Aug 2018

Log Text: Borthwick Mains Possible Pictish Symbol Stone: We got the location of this symbol stone completely wrong, and whilst we found Borthwick Mains, did not find the symbol stone. Its now high on my 'wish list' to return to. A lot of building work had been happening here, with the entrance to the farm in the process of being widened, and the house nearest the road empty and almost derelict. I did venture into the garden, but not having any phone signal, did not have the photo of the stone on Canmore to refer to.

Whitcastle Hill

Trip No.93  Entry No.10  Date Added: 31st Aug 2018
Site Type: Hillfort Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 29th Aug 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Whitcastle Hill Prehistoric Earthwork: We decided to return to this site another day, having had a glimpse of the herd of very large cattle grazing over the site. Shame - the aerial photograph of this site on Canmore looks absolutely fascinating!

Midshiels Standing Stone

Trip No.93  Entry No.6  Date Added: 31st Aug 2018
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 29th Aug 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Midshiels Standing Stone, near Hawick: At our last visit, we were put off from entering the field because of a very large bull and his ladies. The bull stood guard near the stone, and any approach made him stand tall, with splayed legs, looking menacingly at us – I contented myself with taking photos from near the gate in the field.

At this visit we parked near the entrance to Midshiels farm, at NT 53459 17603, where we made sure we weren’t blocking the entrance into field. Immediately opposite, at NT 53461 17624 is a metal gate into the field, with the top of the stone just visible.

Husband, Andrew, opened the gate and was in the field, and I was just about to follow when a loud voice behind me stopped me going an further. There was a large, but friendly, farmer and his lad in a very large pickup truck. “There are bullocks in that field – if they see you, they’ll go for you. Drive into the next field and go up to the tunnel – you can turn round there. You can see the stone from there.” I thanked him for the ‘heads up’.

Andrew moved the car, but rather than drive the car up to the tunnel, the ground was a bit too uneven to risk the bottom of the car, so we left it at the edge of the field at NT 53518 17745 and walked to the gate near the tunnel at NT 53388 17830. From here, it looked as if all the cattle were at the far end of the field, with many of them lying down, although the hump in the middle of the field made it difficult to really see. We decided to take the chance and walk to the stone, as we could have got back to the gate quickly.

This stone was glorious in the sunshine, with a most peculiar small ‘hook’ to the top. I tried to capture the shadow in the strong sunshine.

Whitcastle Sike

Trip No.93  Entry No.9  Date Added: 31st Aug 2018
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 29th Aug 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Whitcastle Sike Settlement: The OS map shows a group of settlements and hillforts which can be found to the east north east of Broxholme Easter Loch, and today in a pretty remote spot down a gated road. We parked at NT 43929 11939, at the wide entrance to a farm track/field entrance and walked to the gate into the field opposite.

On the map, it looked like these settlements would be pretty easy to pick out. Unfortunately, on the ground, the land had been heavily quarried and tall grass and bracken made picking out the land shapes a little tricky. We managed to identify this settlement by its location next to the stream. Whilst it had been heavily quarried, walking around its outline made it easier to identify.

To the west of this settlement is a very pretty burn which trickles past, forming pools in several areas. To the west and north, the ground around the settlement is boggy, but the area of the settlement is a metre or so above the water and dry; it looks as if the edges of the oval enclosure has been deliberately built up to form a protective kerb.

Kirkhaugh Cross

Trip No.94  Entry No.3  Date Added: 1st Sep 2018
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 31st Aug 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Kirkhaugh Cross, Church of the Holy Paraclete: Having seen one of the wells on the opposite side of the road, we turned our attention to finding the cross. This church is virtually hidden behind the trees, with only a portion of its eastern end and a narrow, tall spire peeping out of the trees at its western end.

I thought at first this cross was a modern grave marker, as it sits up a modern plinth, but closer examination showed this cross has been used as a gate post at least once in its past.

Behind the cross is a grave stone which has grown into the side of a large horse chestnut tree and been cracked. With the River South Tyne babbling away just behind the eastern churchyard wall, this is a lovely spot.

Kirkhaugh Wells

Trip No.94  Entry No.2  Date Added: 1st Sep 2018
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 31st Aug 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Kirkhaugh Wells, near Church of the Holy Paraclete: After having spent about 2 hours wandering around Epiacum fort, we left to go for a cup of tea in Alston, where we called to the Top Café for tea and crumpets. As suggested by Alastair Robertson, we called into Local Links/Library at the Town Hall to see if they had a copy of his book/report on the fort, but the librarian knew nothing about it (“he wrote a book, but it’s out of print”), and had no further information. We left, walking across to the church of St. Augustine of Canterbury in Alston; I hadn’t taken my camera, and apart from some 13th century gravestones and architectural fragments, the only thing of note was the Derwentwater Clock, set up in the north west corner of the church. Surprisingly, there were instructions to see it working – remove one of the blocks from under the weights on its right hand side, then set the pendulum in motion. Brilliant to see something so old ticking away. To see the hand made cog wheels turning was amazing.

Driving firstly along the A686 following the River South Tyne northwards out of Alston, on the eastern side of the river, we took the minor, very single track road with no passing places, to Kirkhaugh. Just past the farm building is a small triangle of grass; we parked just past this on the grass verge, and made to walk down what looked like the driveway to the Old Rectory, but is actually the only access to the Holy Paraclete Church – Paraclete being another term for ‘Holy Ghost’. The OS map showed ‘Wells’ marked around this point.

As I looked out of the car window, I saw what at first looked like a ‘doorway into the hillside’ but is a disintegrating well house. I walked up the slope to take photographs, and could see inside the well house which is still full of clear water.

The second well, which I saw walking back up the road from the church, is up a hill opposite the farmhouse; now a ruinous brick and concrete structure, it drains into a trough at the bottom of the slope by the road. Presumably it is then piped into the River South Tyne.

Saffron Well (Barhaugh)

Trip No.94  Entry No.4  Date Added: 2nd Sep 2018
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 31st Aug 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Saffron Well (Barhaugh): After the peace and quiet of Kirkaugh Wells and the Church of the Holy Paraclete, we drove past this even more remote spot. Andrew was brave enough to hop over the stile and descend the very steep, overgrown path down to the river. He reported that a ‘stream just started from nowhere, forming a pool, then running into Barheugh Burn’. Due to the sheer amount of foliage and trees, it was difficult to photograph. Only a very short entry on Pastscape. I've done several internet searches and not been able to find out anything else.

Whitley Castle (Alston)

Trip No.94  Entry No.1  Date Added: 2nd Sep 2018
Site Type: Hillfort Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 31st Aug 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Whitley Castle / Epiacum Fort/Iron Age Hillfort: We were initially going to Kirkheugh to see the old cross there, but were on the wrong side of the river, and passed the fort, named Whitley Castle on the OS map, so stopped in the car park. There was a van and two other cars in the car park, and we could see people on the hillside above, so thought it must have attracted lots of other visitors.

There are new signs around, along with leaflets under the information board. Now called by its Roman name of Epiacum, the way to the fort is well signposted, and by following the numbered tour (spot the numbered flowerpots) we understood where we were.

As we climbed the hill, one of the men at the top had a stepladder – Postman from the Portal? I asked myself. Another had a ranging pole. By the time we reached the top they were sitting having a cup of coffee before continuing. I asked them if they were doing a survey, and realised I was talking to Stewart Ainsworth of Time Team fame. He, Alastair Robertson and colleague (whose name I didn’t ask but whose face was very familiar) were doing a survey in preparation for taking down a ‘modern’ stone wall to open up the fort site. At the moment, to get access to the Vicus and other parts of the site, you have to walk a long way round through different gates. What a multiple ditch system!

For my future reference: Stewart mentioned a 138 page report produced by English Heritage, which I’ve downloaded to both the picture folder and my Megalithic Portal/Useful Information About Sites folder.

Also see https://www.epiacumheritage.org/

St Cuthbert's Church (Norham)

Trip No.95  Entry No.1  Date Added: 9th Sep 2018
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 6th Sep 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 5

Log Text: Anglo Saxon Pillar, Norham: The journey seemed to take a lot longer than anticipated, and we didn’t arrive here until almost 3pm. At first, keeping the tower of the church in view, we went the wrong way, past the village cross and the first school, then turned round, travelling back along West Street (the B6470), turning down North Way to Church Lane. We spotted the churchyard first; the church is at the bottom of Church Lane, so we ended up parking near the gate at the bottom at NT 89710 47356 and walking up to the south porch along the path.

Andrew thought there were originally 25 stones here, but there are actually only 18, built into a ‘pillar’, with different sides showing, some recorded separately on the Corpus. A few of the fragments have been lost between their finding in 1833 and today, but the Corpus holds some drawings from the 19th century.

After photographing the Saxon pillar, we looked around outside, spotting the musket ball holes where Oliver Cromwell’s army had shooting practice, and looked at the site of the original Saxon church, which is on a mound slightly higher than the modern church.

Nun's Well (Upsettlington)

Trip No.95  Entry No.4  Date Added: 9th Sep 2018
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 6th Sep 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Nun's Well, Upsettlington: From St. Mary's Well, walking up the hill to the gate which leasds into the next field, we walked back down hill towards a steam. The well monument can be seen between two large trees, just before a small burn leading westwards into the RiverTweed. The trees on the western bank of the river hid the view of the water, but what a magnificent spot.

I didn’t realise until we got home and brought up the Canmore record that the actual well is hidden by the stone dome, which is outside the monument enclosure.

The monument seems to be built on much older steps, which are held together with a large number of iron staples. These aren’t mentioned in the Canmore record.

Twizel Standing Stone

Trip No.95  Entry No.6  Date Added: 9th Sep 2018
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 6th Sep 2018. My rating: Condition -1 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Site of possible standing stone, Twizel: The boulder no longer appears to be in the field, although there is a small raised area in the field – as this is England, we couldn’t find anyone to ask permission to walk into the field, so photographed it from the fence near the cottage. For a last stop of the day, a little disappointing, as a standing stone would have 'wrapped things up nicely'.

Monk's Well (Upsettlington)

Trip No.95  Entry No.2  Date Added: 9th Sep 2018
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 6th Sep 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Monk's Well, Upsetllington: From St Cuthbert's Church in Norham with its Saxon pillar, we went to Norham Castle (well worth looking round, and free of charge). This was the start of quite a treat - three holy wells in two adjacent fields!

From the castle, we crossed the bridge over the River Tweed, going from England to Scotland, following the B6470 to a left hand turn, by a Victorian water fountain by the side of the crossroads. This turning led to Upsettlington, which seems to have been renamed Ladykirk at some point (all the signs and house names read ‘Ladykirk’ Lodge, etc).

At the cross roads between the houses, at the entrance to the main house, we turned left towards Black Row, the Smithy and East Lodge, parking by the phone box. We let ourselves into the field (gate to the left of the phone box), only to find there were four horses galloping from the far side of the field towards us, and a fence between us and the well. We decided to drive back along the road towards the B6470, where there was another gate into a stock-free field. This field also contained two of the wells and gave access through a gate into the field with Nun’s Well.

There was a large pallet at the point where the grid reference for this well was. Lifting the pallet, a smaller pallet, half buried in the mud beneath, with a man-hole cover underneath. Some 20m to the south east there was a modern man hole cover, demarked from the rest of the field by three stakes placed in a triangle, with a pipe leading down the slope. Which of these is the real well, we weren’t sure. There were a few possibly dressed stones peeping above the turf near the pallet.

Having photographed both possible well sites, it looked as if the ‘staked site’ had possibly been the site for a drinking trough, but there had been so much ground disturbance it was difficult to tell.

St Mary's Well (Upsettlington)

Trip No.95  Entry No.3  Date Added: 9th Sep 2018
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 6th Sep 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: St Mary's Well, Upsettlington: From Monk’s Well, and in the same field, we walked east-north-east towards this fenced off area of the field. To our left hand side, raised some 0.5m+ above ground level, and seemingly in a perfect circle, was a funny wooded area; closer inspection revealed it was being used as a large, tree-covered feeding station for pheasants/grouse? There was no record on Canmore of this being a cairn or the site of a hillfort.

St Mary’s Well, with its inscription barely legible on the top, reminded me very much of the well houses in Durham City. The structure was very overgrown, although underneath the name of the well, there was still the remains of a metal pipe leading into the well trough below (the latter was hidden by vicious nettles).

The latest visit report recorded by Canmore in 1971 says the well is now dry, but the inscription is still intact.

From here, we walked northwards, uphill, to a gate into the next field which contained Nun’s Well.

Norham Cross

Trip No.95  Entry No.5  Date Added: 9th Sep 2018
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 6th Sep 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Norham Village Cross: (Before looking at this cross, we stopped off to look at the Victorian Jubilee Fountain just over the border in Scotland, which still has its original pump handle, although this doesn't work). We passed this cross several times today, but with it being immediately next to the children’s playground, there were children sitting on its lower steps, and propping their bicycles against it. When we passed by on the way back from seeing the holy wells at Upsettlington, there was fortunately no children around it, so we stopped to take photographs, much to the amusement of two ladies passing by who stopped to watch. It was nice to see the cross still very much part of village life today.

Whilst the top part of this cross looks Victorian/relatively recent, the steps look much, much older and are very worn.

Newbeggin Stone Row

Trip No.96  Entry No.1  Date Added: 12th Sep 2018
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 11th Sep 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Newbeggin Stone Row: We went along to Newbeggin armed with permission from a number of landowners to walk along their boundary stone walls to look for other possible standing stones. We found a few more, but these looked more like erratics which had been shaped and used in the stone walls. I will document these and send them off to Sandy G for comment.

We got to see the stones outside Sycamore View/House with the farmer, who said the archaeologists said they were probably rubbing stones, although the farmer said they weren't (currently) tall enough even for sheep to rub against. There were certainly no signs of animals having trodden away earth at the base of the stones.