TWEEDSMUIR PARISH HISTORY
11.1. Fruid Chapel and Burial Ground. (St Cuthbert's Chapel)
Sections of Page 6 Hawkshaw and page 11 Pilgrims Ways etc are being combined to form this new page)
Historic Environmental Scotland - Canmore ID 48546 and other sources now know this site and associated burial ground as St. Cuthbert's Chapel. The burial ground is important as it is probable that many Frasers were interred there. There is not much information on this subject at the moment but extracting it from the "Hawkshaw" label is a big step forward.
The survey by the then Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments in Scotland (RCAHMS) in 1960 had lumped these sites together with Hawkshaws Castle.(1) Their report no 509 follows.
Reference No 4 in the above piece refers to Armstrong. (2)
There is a Chapel Burn which flowed through the site of Hawkshaw Farm fairly near Hawkshaw Castle. However further up the Fruid Valley there is a Priesthope Burn a tributary of the Carterhope Burn that is much more likely to be associated with the site of the chapel and burial ground. Andrew Lorimer in his book Life and Times in the Upper Tweed Valley(3) stated "The name Priesthope is all that remains of the small chapel near Carterhope." Molly Clavering in her book From the Border Hills(4) stated "Cemetery and building alike have gone now, their only memorial is the name of Priesthope."
The site of the chapel is not shown on any old maps of the area indicating that the chapel was possibly included with another feature. The feature that comes to mind is Carterhope farm. Carterhope came into being or was considerably enhanced as a sheep farm in the twelfth century by the arrival of the Cistercian Monks of Melrose at Hopecarton with their carts. See page 11.2 Kingledores Chapel.
The William Blackadder 1821 survey of the Estates of Tweedsmuir and Meggat(5) shows Carterhope seemingly comprised of two sections. A larger enclosed feature with a more fragmented feature adjacent to a bend in the trackway shown as the Road to Moffat. The strategic location at the bend in the trackway where the track changes from the flat of the Fruid valley to the remote slopes via the Carterhope/Priesthope burns would have been a prime location for the chapel. The Priesthope burn joins the Carterhope burn close to this location.
in the 1960s the Fruid valley was flooded to form the Fruid Reservoir inundating the Hawkshaw farm, Carterhope Farm, Fruid Farm, Fruid Chapel and Burial Ground and last but not least the site of the Fruid Castle of the Frasers at the head of the valley. More about the Fruid Castle site on page 5.2. Frasers of Fruid.
References.
1) Royal Commission on the Ancient Monuments of Scotland; Inventory for Peeblesshire, Edinburgh, 1967. p236.
2) Armstrong, Mostyn, John; A Companion to the Map of the County of Peebles, W. Creech, Edinburgh, 1775. p107.
3) Railton, Margaret, Compiler; Andrew Lorimer and his Times in the Upper Tweed Valley, Tuckwell Press, Edinburgh, 2001. p57.
4) Clavering, Molly; From the Border Hills, Nelson, Edinburgh, 1953. p215.
5) Historic Environment Scotland; Plan of the Estates of Tweedsmuir and Meggat surveyed in 1821 by William Blackadder.