Catrail

Catrail (also known as the Picts' Work or Picts' Work Ditch) is the name applied to the remains of a large earthwork, about 50 miles in length, which, beginning at Torwoodlee Hill, near the junction of the Gala Water with the Tweed, runs with a semi-circular sweep southward through the counties of Selkirk and Roxburgh to a point under Peel Fell, in the Cheviots. The earthwork consisted of a deep ditch, with a rampart on each side, and varied in breadth from 20 to 26 feet. The cultivation of land and other causes have resulted in the destruction of the ramparts in many places. The Catrail was first described by Gordon in his Itinerarium Septentrionale (1726), and since then has been the subject of much speculation among antiquaries. For a full description of the Catrail, see paper in Transactions of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club for 1880, by James Smail, F.S.A. An account of the various theories which have been promulgated regarding the Catrail will be found in Blackwood's Magazine for 1888.