In the final leg of my tour of Scotland (which you can follow from CA 393), I head south into the Lowlands and Borders. I will then take a break next issue to celebrate the milestone of CA 400, before returning to my geographic theme, moving south into the English borderlands of Cumbria and Northumberland.
Before I proceed, however, a final reminder: these columns on Scotland are dedicated to the memory of Katharine MacDonald (1976-2022), an old friend, outstanding archaeologist, and proud Scotswoman. Kathy tragically left her family, friends, and colleagues far too soon after a sudden illness in late 2022. If you are curious about her life and career, then a obituary that sums up her many strengths can be read online: www.trowelblazers.com/2023/01/31/katharine-macdonald-a-burning-light-in-prehistory.
Big finds and Biggar horizons
The Scots borders have it all in terms of archaeological content. Within a discrete area, this column spans the Neolithic through to the post-medieval period, stopping off at all major chronological points in between. An excellent recent starting point is CA 378 (September 2021), which examined thousands of years of history along the route of the A75 bypass near Dunragit in south-west Galloway. Further east along the A75, there is also the superb Neolithic site of Pict’s Knowe, a henge just south of Dumfries. CA 141 and 160 (December 1994 and November 1998) visited fieldwork undertaken there by a team from the University of Southampton.
