dumfries-1920/04-032

Transcription

HISTORICAL MONUMENTS (SCOTLAND) COMMISSION.

IV.

RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND: THE DEBATEABLE LAND.
That the relics of the primitive folk should be traceable along the line of the
watercourses, and that, to avoid the objectionable features of the forest and bogland
on the levels, these pioneers should have occupied the higher and drier flanks, is what
might be expected. This applies to peaceful penetration, which is necessarily a
leisurely and scattered process. Hostile invasion follows a more beaten track.
Whether the Romans made their first entry into Caledonia by the west side is
not certain, though usually affirmed. Birrenswark has given us the glandes (or acorn-
shaped sling bolts of lead) which are peculiarly associated with Agricola's time.
The Antonine Itinerary starts on this side at the station of Blatobulgium or Birrens,
though this road-map is not necessarily complete. A prolongation of the road to
the western extremity of the Vallum of Forth and Clyde seems inevitable. The
camps at Gilnockie and Raeburnfoot by the White Esk raise another problem (see
p. xx.). In any case, we are moving along the rivers. Even to-day travelling
across country in Dumfriesshire is inconvenient; the very railways reflect the north
and south trend of the forces which have moulded the district.
The mediæval routes are scarcely in doubt. The main one at least ran from
Annan to Lochmaben, thence towards Tinwald way, and so by the side of the Nith
to where the road forked, as it still does, between Tibbers and Morton, one fork going
up by Durisdeer to the passes through the hills into Clydesdale, the other by Sanquhar
into Ayrshire. The upper Annandale route by Moffat was also much used as the most
direct way from the capital to the West March. It led to the head waters of the
Tweed, and so to Peebles and the way to Edinburgh. ¹ From the succession of
fortified sites along both sides we may infer that it was also a well-trodden prehistoric
route. In number the sites exceed those in the upper part of the Nith valley.
But in later military history, on any scale greater than a parochial feud, the
Annan-Lochmaben-Nithsdale road was the main strategical feature of Dumfriesshire.
Relatively to England there was also this fact, that on Dumfriesshire opened the
western door past the mountain partition of the Cheviots. The Solway Firth on
the one side and the hills on the other, with only the Esk as an ineffectual barrier,
canalised all advances by land on this side from one country to the other.
Thus, from the very outset of hostilities in the War of Independence, the cardinal
position of Dumfriesshire became apparent. King John's offensive opened, two days
before King Edward crossed the Tweed, with a stroke as far as Carlisle. The Scots
issued from Annandale and crossed the "water of Sulewath" at three places. They
did a lot of mischief, but had to relinquish the siege of Carlisle and retire to Annandale. ²
From the other side Annandale became a favourite raiding ground. Twice in the year
of Stirling Bridge (1297) it suffered a foray from Carlisle; the second occasion was a
little before Christmas, and an improvised resistance of the natives brought about
what is piously remembered as the battle of Annan, a local defeat. More than ten
hamlets were burned within the range of a few parishes. Next spring Annan itself
was spoiled and burned, church and all. ³

1 Cf. Letters and Papers, Henry VIII., vol. xviii. part ii. No. 237, for various routes from Carlisle
to Edinburgh and Glasgow.
2 Hemingburgh, Chronicon, London, 1849, vol. ii. pp. 95-96. 3 Ibid., pp. 146-7.

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