 |
| Based
on 1935 quarter-inch OS map. With thanks to Ordnance
Survey
|
Note: As the same
charters are mentioned in several of the references
all references are at the foot of the page
Newbattle Abbey was founded by
David I in 1140. It was a daughter house of the Cistercian
monastery of Melrose and was sited near Dalkeith, south
of Edinburgh.
It received many grants of land
throughout the country and was active in exploiting
the resources these offered, being involved in coal
and lead mining, salt extraction and farming.
It is thought they may have built
roads to these places. The charters speak of roads (via)
and as Cistercians they had the necessary skills for
road and bridge building. The roads were capable of
taking carts as the monks used a cart of their own design
to transport goods to the abbey from these places. The
Salter’s Road from Prestonpans to Dalkieth is said to
have been built by them and as they were engaged in
mining at Leadhills they may have conducted road building
on stretches of this route where the Roman roads proved
insufficient.
One important road they are said
to have built was one over to the Monklands, a large
tract of land in Lanarkshire which had been granted
to them in 1162 by Malcolm IV. The charter reads "Dunpaldre
by its right bounds with Metherauch, Mayneth and Clarnephin,
to Dunduffles towards the east as Gillepatrick Mackein
held them before, and as Baldwin, Sherrif of Lanark,
Geoffrey, Sherrif of Edinburgh, and Fergus McFerchat
and Donald Ewain and Udrad, Sherrif of Lithgow, and
others and perambulated them, by their marches between
Lothian and the Vale of Clyde." The grant was confirmed
in 1224, at which time Carmyle was added (Rankin).
Rankin also notes that Drumpellier
was called the Grange in a charter of Alexander II (1240)
and that there were mills at Gartlea, Kipsbyre, Gartmillar
and Haggs on the Calder Water. There was courthouse
or a chapel on Kips Burn by the mid 1300’s where three
courts were held each year and rents collected.
 |
| Based
on 1914 half-inch OS map.With thanks to Ordnance
Survey |
Although we are not concerned
in detail with the extent of this territory, Rankin
identifies the places in the charter as: Dunpelder -
Drumpelier; Metherauch - Madrox near Glenboig; Myneth
- Myvot. As the map shows, this indicates that the Monklands
must have covered much of what was later known as Old
Monklands parish.
The monks are said to have engaged
in the raising of grain and the keeping of livestock,
particularly of sheep. They also mined for coal. Undoubtedly
there was an extensive network of tracks or even roads
within the Monklands connecting these locations, particularly
to the courthouse at Kips and to the grange at Drumpelier.
Details of these possible roads are given on the Monklands
Online website, including the approach taken by the
road coming from Newbattle itself. There must also have
been a road or track over to Carmyle.
So far as the road from Newbattle
is concerned we have a fairly good idea of the route
it followed. This is because the Abbey negotiated rights
of free passage with various landowners between Newbattle
and the Monklands. These agreements allowed them to
travel through the lands of Retrevyn, Dalmahoy, Strabrock,
Torphichen, the Barony of Bathgate and Ogilface as well
as Crown lands. Innes notes that although there was
a common law right to pass through lands the monks chose
to seek agreement from the landowners and in some cases
gave them one of their carts each year.
The style of the charters can
be seen from that granted by Alexander III around 1253
giving "the right of free passage on road from the abbey
to Monkland for themselves, their cattle and carriages
and also liberty to unyoke their waggons and pasture
their cattle one night at a time whenever required,
keeping off meadowland and growing crops." (Rankin)
To ascertain the route taken by
the road we first have to identify the places mentioned
in the charters and then see the best route connecting
them.
Retrevyn
This charter was granted by Gregory de Mellone (Melville)
in 1264. As the Melvilles had lands by the North Esk
just two miles to the west of the abbey it might be
the charter refers to these. There was, however, a Retrevyn
owned by the Melvilles in the Bathgate Hills close to
places mentioned in the other charters and it is tempting
to assume this is what is referred to.
Although it is not absolutely
certain, it is still possible that the route taken was
through the Melville lands beyond the North Esk and
then over to Colinton to skirt the north end of the
Pentland Hills (this would be much shorter than going
into Edinburgh which would also take the alignment away
from Dalmahoy). There was an old ford here over the
Water of Leith and once over it was only 3 or 4 miles
to the lands of Dalmahoy.
 |
| The
new bridge at Currie near site of original bridge
|
Another possibility is that the
route went down through present day Loanhead to the
flanks of the Pentlands at Crosshouse, NW of Auchendinny
and near to Glencorse and then crossed the Pentlands
by a track shown on the Military Survey that heads over
to Currie where there was an old bridge
over the Water of Leith. The NSA says that it was thought
to be over 500 years old which would mean it was built
about 1300. Interestingly Currie had a connection with
Torphichen as the Hospitallers had a chapel here which
was on the south side of the river. It is hard to say
if the bridge was built because of the chapel or because
of the track (on the Military Survey there is only the
track and a few scattered settlements to the south of
the river) and whether the bridge was built by the Hospitallers
or the Newbattle monks. One factor could be that the
bridge was built on a route (given the place name Glencorse
dates from mediaeval times) between Torphichen and the
lands of Temple, 6 miles south of Dalkeith (see Will
Grant, Pentland Days and Country Ways, p.106 although
he suggests the route was through Bavelaw and that the
Military Survey track was a drove road). It is an interesting
possibility but further evidence would
be needed to say this was the route to the Monklands.
Dalmahoy
Dalmahoy could be easily reached either from Colinton
or Currie and as the next point on the route was Strabrock
(Uphall), with the necessity of crossing the Almond,
it is likely the route either went north through Ratho
(where there was a holy well) to the Newbridge area
or NW to another crossing point upstream from Newbridge
which would give a more direct line to Uphall.
If it did go to Newbridge, there
is a strong possibility that it picked up the line of
the road shown on both Blaeu and Adair that runs west
over to Bathgate. There is in fact a strong chance that
this is the road to the Monklands as its route is quite
consistent with the evidence.
Although Blaeu’s map dates to
1654, there was an earlier version by Hondius
of 1630 (NLS) which also shows the road. The same road
is shown on Adair’s
manuscript map of 1682 and the printed version of 1735.
As the latter is much more clearly drawn it removes
any ambiguities from the earlier maps.
Strabrock
 |
| Near Bangour |
Strabrock (or Strathbrock) Castle is thought to have
been sited near the present day centre of Uphall and
it is likely that the road ran close to it. It has to
be noted, however, that the Hondius and Blaeu maps show
the road dividing, and then rejoining at Strathbrock.
This feature does not appear on Adair or later maps
until the 1930’s when the old A8 bypassed Broxburn and
Uphall on a similar line. Although not certain, this
could indicate that the southern route was old and passing
out of use in the early 1600‘s.
Whichever route was taken, it
is very likely to have ran past Bangour and on to Drumcross
like the road shown on the above maps which follows
a ridge of high ground away from the poorly drained
land to the south.
Retrevyn (alternative), Bathgate,
Torphichen
 |
| Looking east
from Drumcross |
The original charter gives the
monks the right to cross through the lands of Retrevyn,
so that even if Retrevyn is to be identified with Tartraven,
one and a half miles north of Drumcross, there is no
problem with the route through Drumcross provided that
the lands of Retrevyn stretched that far.
This in fact points to a slight problem which is that
Retrevyn, Torphichen and Bathgate are all close together
so that without knowing the boundaries of their lands
we cannot be sure exactly where the road went. Certainly
if the Torphichen and Retrevyn lands stretched a couple
of miles to the south to border on Bathgate this would
give a good alignment with Ogilface, a mile or so north
west of Armadale, and with the course of the road shown
on Hondius and Adair. It would be much more direct than
running to Torphichen Preceptory and then down towards
Ogilface.
The best fit for the road shown
on Hondius and Adair is running past Bathgate to Easton
and Colinshiel past Barbauchlaw to Woodend Farm where
Ogilface is thought to have been sited.
Ogilface
| Original track
at Eastcraigs Hill (NS9067) |
 |
 |
 |
| Causeway |
Looking
west |
Same
location looking east |
On much of this stretch the road appears to have
been upgraded, probably by statute labour
- looking east towards the Bathgate Hills |
 |
Adair shows the road continuing
to Bedlormie, 3 miles west of Ogilface and names it
as the Middle Way to Glasgow. From the Military Survey
and other maps we can see that it continued past Westfield
running north of Hillend reservoir to Eastfield and
Caldercruix where it has the line of the modern road.
There was a crossing of the North Calder at Ford Bridge
near Plains.
It is thought to have run north
of Airdrie town centre towards Kipps and Drumpellier
(see Monklands Online for details).
As said, so far as the rest of
the Monklands goes, it is reasonable enough to assume
that they would have had tracks or even roads within
the territory from the outlying farms to the grange
at Drumpelier, to Kipps and to the mills, and possibly
over to Carmyle.
It should perhaps be emphasised
that our knowledge of this route is limited to the charter
evidence which only suggests what the route might have
been. In particular, the stretch between Newbattle and
Uphall can only be estimated. The possible identification
of the road with that shown on the maps of Hondius and
Adair is reasonable enough, though still conjectural.
Until further evidence becomes available, perhaps through
archaeology or aerial photography, we may have to be
content with what can only be an approximation of the
route.
References
The History and Statistics, Antiquarian and Modern,
of the Parish of East Monkland, James Thomson Rankin,
1855
Sketches
of Early Scotch History and Social Progress, Cosmo
Innes, Edinburgh 1861 (GoogleBooks site)
Mention of the charters granted to Newbattle Abbey to
cross various lands
A
Topographical and Historical Account of Linlithgowshire,
John Penney, Edinburgh 1832 (GoogleBooks site) Gives
details of some of the charters
Ancient
Condition of the Parish in 1160 (Monklands Online
website) - overview
Brief
History of the area (Monklands Online website) -
details of the Monklands and of roads
Charters
for Torphichen and Ogilface on Armadale website
(main
page)- see years 1293 and 1320
Tartraven
(Retrevyn) Chapel - details from Canmore database
Currie
Church - details from "Old and New Edinburgh"
site
Will Grant, Pentland Days and Country Ways, Nelson p.106
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