TWEEDSMUIR PARISH HISTORY.
4000BC Longbow.
In 1991 a hill walker walking near the source of the Gameshope burn in the moorlands towards the far east of Tweedsmuir parish on the Tweedsmuir/Moffat Parish boundary in the Scottish Borders found a broken longbow in a peat bog known as Rotten Bottom (1). The bog drains into the Gameshope Burn. The walker kept it in his garage for quite a while before taking it to an expert. The subsequuent calibrated radiocarbon dating indicated that the bow, made of yew, dated to 4040 BC to 3640 BC. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland - RCAHMS - have it recorded on the online archive Canmore as ID 71910. This dating makes the bow the oldest one in existence. The bow was displayed in the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh but has now - 2014 - been loaned to the Moffat Museums where it it is nicely displayed in the refurbished museum. To view the display go to the Moffat Museums website http://www.moffatmuseum.co.uk.. It can be found on the main gallery section of the Exhibition Areas. The museum from 2017 is also hosting an exhibition on the Life and Times of Merlin(2) also see page Merlin Caledonius.
The findspot of the bow is not far from the Carrifran Wildwood Project(3) master minded by the Borders Woodland Trust. The Trust has recently acquired - 2013- the Talla and Gameshope estate. The development here will follow on from the adjacent Carrifran Project with the planting planting of woodland trees that would have been around c4000 BC. The mix of trees had been dictated by pollen records from core sampling and other data mainly includes alder, ash, aspen, elm, cherry, birch, hazel, holly, oak, thorn, rowan, willows and juniper. You will note that yew is not included in this list(3) but a few yews have been included in the planting - maybe because of the yew bow? Oak and hazel are both included in the list as they were the main components of subsequent bronze age round houses.
More information on Wildwood sites at www.bordersforesttrust.org.
More information on yew bows on page Yew Trees of Neidpath.
The above c4000 BC yew bow is the earliest evidence of the early inhabitants of the Upper Tweed valley. The hunter who dropped his broken bow left no other mark on the landscape. In 4000 BC south-east England was still joined to the continent of Europe(4).
References.
1) Scottish Borders Council; Early Settlers in the Borders, Kelso Graphics, 1997, p26 & Plate 4.
2) Crichton, Robin; On the Trail of Merlin in a Dark Age, Edinburgh Film Production, 2017. p108.
3) Ashmole, Myrtle and Philip; The Carrifran Wildwood Story, BFT, Ancrum, 2009. Appx B for trees, Appx C for shrubs planted.
4) Moffat, Alistair; Before Scotland, the Story of Scotland before History, Thompson and Hudson, London, 2005. p47 (Map)