Scots' Dike

The Scots' Dike or dyke is a three and a half mile / 5.25 km long linear earthwork, constructed by the English and the Scots in 1552 to mark the division of the Debatable Lands and thereby settle the exact boundary between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England. The kingdoms were conjoined in 1707.

The Debatable Lands, also known as "Debatable ground", "Batable ground", or "Threpe" – a Scots term meaning "something that is argued over" – were in the West Marches, bounded on the west by the River Sark, to the east by the River Esk and Liddel Water, on the north by the Bruntshiell Moor and Tarras Moss, and on the south by the estuary of the Esk. The area was about ten miles from north to south and three and a half from east to west at its widest part. Canonbie was the main population centre within the debatable lands.

These lands were finally divided between the English and Scottish crowns by an agreement supposedly arbitrated by the French ambassador although his line was not the last and fynal Lyne of thr particion. The physical border constructed came to be known as the "Scots' Dike", the "March Dike" or more recently the "Scotsdike plantation", a political border rather than a fortification. The terminal points of the dike were said to be marked by square stones bearing the royal arms of England and Scotland; however, these markers have disappeared, were broken up for building nearby cottages or they never existed in the first place. Spaced along the centre of the bank are a number of small unmarked boundary stones of uncertain date, some of which have fallen.

It has been suggested that the name came from the archaic word "Batable" meaning land which was rich and fertile upon which stock animals were fattened or "battended". This is far from certain, however, and the word appears in 1449 in the expression 'The landez called batable landez or threpe landez in the west marchez', where batable and threpe seem to be near-synonyms, and as threpe means "argument, controversy, dispute" this is perhaps a more likely explanation of "Batable".

In 1222 a commission of six representatives from each kingdom attempted to fix the border line, and one proposed by the English commissioners more or less equates to that which is shown on Ordnance Survey maps today. The western Anglo-Scottish Border was more formally agreed in Edward II's reign with David II of Scotland in 1330, to run along the course of the Esk and Liddel from Gretna to Kershopefoot to delineate between the English and Scottish West Marches. In practice, however, this region was controlled by wardens of the marches who usually held the land in their own right and met at designated sites, such as the Lochmaben Stone to discuss and settle disputes.

In Scotland the Maxwells, Johnstons and Scotts secured the Scottish West March to Gretna and Langholm, and in England the region was controlled from Carlisle. The Esk basin at Arthuret was a marshy bogland which was difficult to police, with the Scottish jurisdiction having difficulty policing their side from Gretna to Canonbie. The Debatable Land arose because the Grahams, Armstrongs, Elliots and Bells were too powerful, and the Wardens largely left them alone. These four families raided equally in both England and Scotland, claiming allegiance to neither country; it actually suited both governments to have such a "buffer" zone, so the district became a sort of no-man’s land, where neither country could or would enforce their jurisdiction.

Eventually the general lawlessness spilled over and both wardens demanded that the Debatable Land be eradicated. So in 1552 the French ambassador was appointed to finalise the border line, together with Lord Wharton (of the Battle of Solway Moss fame) and Sir Thomas Chaloner nominated and appointed from England; Sir James Douglas of Drumlanrig and Richard Maitland of Lethington likewise nominated and appointed from Scotland. The commissioners agreed to a compromise demarcation line suggested by the French ambassador, and issued a final declaration that the borderline would run from the Sark to a point on Esk, opposite the house of Fergus Greme; a cross pattee at each end and styled 'this is the least and fynal lyne of the particion concluded xxiiij Septembris 1552.'

Ridpath in 1776 records that "...after some scruples and delays, commissioners appointed by each of the powers, met on the spot, and agreed on a line to be marked by a ditch and march stones."