TWEEDSMUIR PARISH HISTORY.
Hawkshaw Farm.
Hawkshaw Farm is shown towards the centre of Armstrong's map of Peeblesshire of 1775. It shows Hawkshaw Farm beside the Chapel Burn a tributary of the Fruid Water. The farm is shown as four dots indicating a substantial farm. Carterhope Farm, at the head of the Fruid valley at foot of map, is similarly displayed. The map does not show Hawkshaw Castle or the site of the ruined chapel and burial ground mentioned in his Companion(1) to the map. The pathway shown beside the Fruid Wateer from the south via Carterhope was used by early sunshippers and became a route for future pilgrims see page Pilgrims Way.
During the Covenanting period of the second half of the eighteenth century there would have been a pathway between Upper (Over) Menzion and Hawkshaws via the flank of Craig Law that was not passable to the horses of the dragoons of Claverhouse. There was probably several similar escape routes out of the Menzion valley. The area was a hot-bed of Covenanting activity led by John (Black) Welsh of Over Menzion. For more about the Covenanters see pages Covenanters in Upper Tweed and The Covenanter Trial. The latter document lists those that were on trial for attending a conventicle at Talla Linns. The folks at Over Menzion and Hawkshaws are well represented!
Above detail of Hawkshaw Farm from O.S. 6" of 1860 sheet XXIII.
The Covenanters pathway, in due course, became part of a sheep drove trail from the Menzion valley to Fingland via Hawkshaw farm crossing the Hawkshaw Burn about a mile south of Hawkshaw Castle. The trail is shown with dashes on the above O.S. 6" map of 1860 sheet XXIII. The section of the path between Menzion and Craiglaw has been obliteratd by modern Sitka spruce plantations but the point where the Jubilee Road crosses the path route can be imagined.
The section of the path between Hawkshaw Farm and a bit west of the Hawkshaw Burn can be discerned today, particularly where it crosses the Hawkshaw Burn at a very distinctive right-angled kink in the route of the burn. For once, natural erosion has assisted with retaining the evidence. The path crosses the burn by a ford and there is also the remains of a small stone bridge for shepherds and milkmaids to cross the burn dryshod. This is just to the right of the ford on the image above. Several hundred yards south of the ford, beside the line of the path, is the remains of a large - 45m x 25m - turf bucht - a U shaped enclosure designed for the milking of ewes in this case many ewes. Image of c2005 looking south and sketch below. (These enclosures are also known as buchts in Northumbria but in Cumbria they are known as ewelocks.(2) At the apex of the bucht is a more modern 12m diameter stone stell.
There is no sign of the track west of the bucht until the Fingland Burn where it continues to the River Tweed and highway and also southwards where it peters out on the moors and peat hags - the hiding places of fugitive Covenanters. This area is now part of the Whitelaw Brae windfarm. This gap in the trail was probably oblitered during afforestation.
( This bucht has an entrance - adjacent to the track and a separate exit. A kep is a short length of wall - usually seen on stells - to prevent sheep overshooting the entrance and in this case joining the ewes exiting)
Left is an image of the Hawkshaw farm house, in the nineteen thirties, surrounded by trees. Trees can also be seen on the detail of farm house above. The trees were cut down prior to the flooding of the valley for the reservoir. Both the Hawkshaw and Carterhope farms are now under the waters of the Fruid Reservoir along with the sites of Fruid Castle, Fruid Chapel (St Cuthberts) and Burial Ground and the Fruid farmhouse.
Photograph of 2004 with tree stumps showing at low reservoir water level. The stream beside the stump is the Chapel Burn.
References.
(1) Armstrong, Mostyn, John; A Companion to the map of the County of Peebles, or Tweedale, W. Creech, Edimburgh, 1775. p107.
2) Winchester, J.L. Angus, The Harvest of the Hills, Rural Life on Northern England and the Scottish Borders 1400-1700, Edinburgh University Press, 1999.