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You may find this information helpful when researching the area prior to your visit

Scots' Dike runs from NY 3307 7367 to NY 3872 7319 (British national grid reference system) between the rivers Sark and Esk and forms the border between England and Scotland for that length.

It is clear from OS maps that since at least 1862 the majority of the length of the Scots' Dike has been afforested. Prior to the First World War (1914 - 1918) the section within the Scotsdike Plantation was largely intact, however tree felling operations, such as the laying down of temporary railway lines on top of the Dike and the hauling of cut tree trunks, caused considerable damage or even complete destruction in places. The period between 1916 and 1926 seems to have been the worst, despite complaints having been lodged regarding the wholesale destruction of a national monument.

The dike is only traceable within the Scots Dike Plantation, consisting of a bank, with slight ditches on either side, which varies in width from 5.8 m at the west end to 3.3 m at the east end, standing to a maximum height of 0.8 m. The E and W ends cannot be traced, and in places the ditches have silted up while elsewhere they have been re-cut.

In June 1999 English Heritage field investigators visited as part of a National survey pilot project. They describe the monument as lying at the centre of a belt of woodland, comprising spruce plantation to the north of the dike and deciduous woodland to its south. Parts of the plantation had been felled recently, but the dense vegetation rendered detailed survey impossible and investigation was limited to surface examination of the dike. The remains of the linear earthwork, between NY 3346 7396 and NY 3850 7325, consisted mainly of flat-topped bank flanked by a ditch on either side. The form and preservation of these features varied considerably along the length of the dike and it was concluded that little of the monument survived in its original form, however its course is preserved in later boundaries and drainage ditches.

Long sections of the ditches, especially the northern ditch, have been re-cut to provide drainage for the conifer plantation, although in places the modern drainage appears to have been cut through the centre of the dike. Elsewhere, for example at NY 3490 7385, the feature have been almost plough-levelled, the ditches having disappeared and the bank surviving as little more than a rise in the ground. Between NY 3544 7375 and NY 3570 7370, where the Glenzier Beck crosses the course of the dike, there are no traces of the earthwork; whether it has simply not survived or whether the dyke was ever constructed across the slack was not apparent. At a number of points along the length of the dike - most notably at approximately NY 34457390 and NY 36357355 - there is a disjointure in the earthwork which is suggestive of a shift in the line of the original boundary, perhaps due to later land use. At the extreme western end of the dike, between approximately NY 3346 7396 and NY 3390 7392, a second, much slighter bank and ditch lies to the south of the main earthwork but may be nothing more than later drainage. The course of the dike between the western end of Scotsdike Plantation and the River Sark could not be traced on the ground but it was thought that it followed the extant field boundary to the south of Craw's Knowe farm.

The site is marked as an ancient monument on some tourist maps and 'Solway Heritage' unveiled a new access point to the dike in 1999. No interpretation or formal access to the dike itself exists at present (2006). The easiest point of informal access is via the minor road at the Sark end of the dike.