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2 11 PROCEEDING E SOCIETYTH F O S , 1957-58. VII. THE "CAIRNMUIR" HOARD PROM NETHERURD, PEEBLESSHIRE. BY R. W. FEACHEM, M.A., M.Sc., F.S.A., F.S.A.ScoT. discovere Th thif yo s hoar golf do d ornament coind an s180 n si 6 "upon e Shaw th e sid f th o e Hill, Cairnmuirw neae housNe th r f o e , Parisf ho Kirkurd, Peeblesshire s reportewa " n somi d ee landownerdetaith y b l , William Lawson, to Sir Walter Scott twenty-one months after the event.1 The late Dr John Allan read a paper on the coins to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland on 9th November 1953, but this was not published; and apart from reference another o objecte e th f on o r so st which occu publicationn ri s dealing principally with other matters, no general account of the hoard has been made available sinc originae eth l notice. Before describin hoare gth t dwili necessare lb discusyo t locations sit n i , connection with which confusion discovere time th arisens th f eo ha t A .y the Netherurd estate was owned by William Lawson of Cairnmuir, the latter bein ghousestata n e sam a th n f eeo eo name situate f miled7 o . N s Netherurd, 2 J miles NW. of West Linton, in the upper part of the valley of the River Lyne.2 About 1790 Lawson rebuilt Netherurd house and renamed Cairnmuirw Ne t i nam,a e whic ht bori e until 1834= when estate ,th e changing hands, the new owner restored the ancient name.3 It so happened that the hoar s discoveredwa Shan do w Hill durin e comparativelgth y brief period when Netherur calle s Cairnmuir;w dwa dNe althougd an h Lawson's letter, quoted above, mad t cleaei r tha objecte tth s came from Shaw Hill name ,th e "New Cairnmuir"—and later simply "Cairnmuir"—has generally been applie hoard.e th o dt 4 Further confusio arises resulentra n ha a s na f yo t in an account of the parish of Dolphinton, Lanarkshire,5 which states that " . .an ornament of fine gold, resembling the snaffle-bit of a horse's bridle, •with about forty gold beads, having the impression of a star, was found" at a place allegedly in Dolphinton parish. At first sight the fact that this discover recordes ywa differena n di differena t n parisi d htan county from Shae th w Hill hoard might reasonably giv impressioe e th ris o et n thao tw t hoards existed. But if the details of the locations of the hoards are closely 1 Arch. Scot., iv, Part Second (1833), 217-19. 2 J. W. Buchan and'H. Paton, A History of Peeblesshire (1927), m, 148. 3 Ibid., 205. 4 E.g., A Short Guide to Scottish Antiquities, H.M.S.O. (1949), 15. Statisticalw Ne e Th 6 Account of Scotland, VI (1845), 57-8. THE "CAIRNMUIR" HOARD FROM NETHERURD. 113 examined, it becomes apparent that both accounts must probably refer to one discovery (fig. 1). The Dolphinton account is itself confused. It refers , ..X7SHAW\ I Fig. 1. to a large "tumulus of stones" situated "on the height, about three quarters e mans th . ," . f o whice. a omilf he SW large musth ee b tcair n o n 8 VOL. xci. 4 11 PROCEEDING E SOCIETYTH F O S , 1957-58. 104448)p T HilKi (N l . Thise positioth , n howeveri nt indicateno s i , d (whic facn i s thi occupie Townfooty db farmhouse); nevertheless true th , e position of the cairn—a little over 1 mile a few points W. of S. of the manse— must serv degreo n identifo t e s f accuraca o e , it y y greater than thaf o t ordinary conversatio necessars n wa authoe e passagth th o f yt o r e quoted, and the discrepancy can be allowed. However, the passage continues to describe the cairn as "either a place of sacrifice under the Druids, or an enclosur e summeth f o e r residenc e nativth f o ee Britons, e nexth td an " words are "A short way east from this station" the hoard "was found." wore th df o 'Th'e station'eus ' suggests tha smale th t l earthwork lyinn go the NE. face of Shaw Hill a littl1 e over a mile NE. of the cairn on littla Hilp d eKi lan over hal mila f e ESE Dolphintof o . n mans havy ema e been confused, in the mind or in the MS., with the cairn; for Lawson says tha hoare founs th t dwa d '' withi nquartea mila f structura o re f "o e which was probably this earthwork .e explanatioth Whateve e b e th y f no ma r curious details of the Dolphinton account, it is very probable that it contains merel ygarblea incoherend dan t referenc Shae th wo et Hill hoard. The exact find-spot of the hoard is not clearly defined by Lawson. He variously states that it was "within a quarter of a mile" of the earthwork; s "upo Shawe thawa th e sid t f nth i teo Hill, nea house;e th r thad an "t '' The place where they were found is in a sort of hollow upon the side of the Shaw Hill, a wild bleak muir, and the ground mossy and covered with heath." In default of orientation it can only be suggested that the find was probably on the Netherurd side of the march dyke that here also forms the county boundary. e hoarTh d consiste o identicatw f o d l loop terminal torques e flaon t, terminal torque, the single ring terminal of a multi-strand torque and "upward f 40o s " globular coins—al f golo l dl these al alloy f O , .onl e yth ring terminal and two of the coins survive; Lawson believed that the shepherd boy who discovered the hoard dispose2 d of one of the loop terminal torques e flath ,t terminal torqu e coinmosd th o "soman e f t s o tth f eo goldsmiths here" (Edinburgh), but stated that the other loop terminal torqu s thewa en e possessio(1807th r n Georgi )Si f o ne Montgomerf o y Macbiehill. A. The loop terminal torques (PI. XI (1), (2)). As described and illustrated 3 eac f thesho e identical objects consiste "thico tw f kdo golden wires circulaf "o r cross-section twisted togethe anticlockwisn a n ri e direction into a penannular hoop terminating in a loop at each end. The internal diamete hoo e abous th pf wa ro t 3\ ins. Each dwtweighe2 1 . oz d8 B. The flat terminal torque (PI. XI (3)). This was described and 1 To be described and illustrated in the forthcoming Inventory of Peeblesshire, B.C.A.M. (Scotland). 2 National Museu Antiquitief mo Scotlandf so . Catalogue^. Nos48 E . F F, F, B46 47 3 Arch. Scot., loc. bit., and PI. X, No. 2, from which the illustrations of these lost torques, shown in PI. XI (1),:(2), are derived. - . • THE "CAIRNMUIR" HOARD FROM NETHERURD. 115 illustrate s havina d g been discovere dgole s madbrokenon d wa f eo t I . wir f squareo e cross-sectio1 n twisted clockwis givo et a eflute d appearance, ende th sd weran e "bea internae t flat.ou tTh " l diamete hooe s th f pwa o r about 3 t Jdwtweighei 0 ins.1 d . an ,oz d8 C. The ring terminal (PI. XI (4)). This object, now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, one of two that originally formed the endmulti-strana f o s d torque littla s i ,e finer than those from Snettisham, Norfolk mucd an , h finer than those from North Creake, Norfol frod kan m Hengistbury Head, Hampshire.2 It weighs 4 oz. 5 dwt. and is made of an allo goldf yo , silve copperd ran . coinscor e o survivoro tw Th estw . e (PIoriginalle D I th (5)) f .X Th so . y recovered are Gaulish coins comparable to examples found in the vicinity of Soissons, Chalons and Rheims which are attributable to the Suessiones or e Remi. th coiA f thino s s madsor wa joininty eb hemisphereo gtw f o s electru3 m cast in separate moulds, one of these being plain while the other provide e castinth raisea r f dfo go d four-pointet d jointe no star e Th .sar equatorian a nead an t l bulge disfigure appearance th s e coinsth f eo . They measure abou diameten i t. §in • weigd ran h abou grains0 10 t . It is certain that none of the objects composing the Shaw Hill hoard originated in or anywhere near the district in which they were found. The non-Britisf coino e sar h Britise originth t hbu , characte othee th f rro articles would suggest tha e hoarth t d came rather fro aren m a f distributio ao n ni south-east Britain than directly from the land of origin of the coins. The only other recor f whahavy do ma te been coin f thio s s type having been found in Britain is an indistinct one 4 which states that '' In one place [in parise th Dunnichenf ho , Angus] ther sais ei havo dt e been foun numbeda r of small golden bullets .

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