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Borness Cave

Borgue, Borness, Kirkcudbrightshire.

A Bone Cave which was systematically excavated 1872 - 1878. Before excavation it measured 39' 3" long, 21' wide at entrance, narrowing to 14' some 15' inwards. The height of the roof at the entrance was 23' descending to 7'8" about 14' from the entrance, rising again to 12' at the back of the chamber. At the inner end near the floor was a low narrow passage, the width and height of which at the mouth was 2 1/2'. Numerous relics were found and donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, including the remains of 2 skulls, polishers, whetstones, perforated stones, bone implements, combs, bone spoons, pegs, awls, fragment of small Samian cup, of 1st century date, bronze brooch, also probably of 1st century, fragments of vitreous paste and of glass armlet Kirkbride-Jones' type 2, datable to late 1st or early 2nd century - animal bones & shell-fish remains. Roman finds consisted of a fragment of 2nd Century dragonesque brooch, possible 2nd Century possibly an enamelled brooch, possibly Roman harness mounting and a fragment of a possibly 2nd Century Samian cup. The cave is now inaccessible.

Cave dwelling at Borness Point described in PSA 1876, pp. 476-507. 39 ½ ft long, 21 to 14 ft wide and 23 to 7 high, yeilded 3586 bones or fragments of bones of oxen, sheep, pigs, red deer, mice, etc. and 123 objects of human art in bone, stone, bronze, iron and glass.

In the collection of relics found in the famous Borness Bone Cave, in Borgue, the Museum [now the National Museum of Scotland] has a good index of the species of objects belonging to this period of man's occupation of Scotland. The separate objects are numbered in the catalogue HN 1-179, and comprise masses of breccia with pieces of skull and other bones adherent, a large number of animals' bones, e.g., those of the red deer and the badger being specially interesting; several whetstones and polishers ; an implement of flint 11/8 in. by 1/2 in. showing', however, but little signs of secondary working; some curious and uncommon handle-like implements of bone, mostly ornamented with diagonal incised lines, their use problematical; bone combs of the long-handled, long-toothed type, probably used in teasing wool, as are similar combs but of metal used at the present day in North India; pins and spoons of bone and a highly polished long, slender marrow-scoop of bone with a ring cut in its handle. There are also eleven fragments of bronze, including a thin circular brooch 1 1/4 in. diameter, upon which there are very faint traces of enamel, and one fragment of the lustrous red ware usually called " Samian," and so frequently found among the refuse pottery at Roman stations. The Borness Cave as a human habitation is not even of Neolithic Age. Indeed, the cave itself is not, in the opinion of the experts who explored it, old enough for deposits of the Neolithic Period, but belongs to the later remains of the Post Glacial Period. The presence of even one minute fragment of red "Samian" ware is "a world of evidence " alone;" and it appears," say the authors of the account, "that we must fix the state of this cave as most probably between the year 409 A.D., when the Roman legions were withdrawn, and 650, the date of the Saxon conquest of these parts." At the conclusion of the paper on the second exploration of the cave, the authors make the following suggestive remark: "In every one of some six or seven caves along the Muncraig shore some sheep or ox bones similar to those from the Borness Cave have been found. It needs but five minutes' examination to assure one's self that they, like the Borness Cave, were formerly the home or refuge of some ancient Scottish family." [Coles, DGNHAS]

Alternate Names: Bone Cave, Carline's Cove

Notes: Name confirmed. Visited by A J Corrie, W B Clarke and A R Hunt 1875; W B Clarke 1876; W B Clarke 1878; RCAHMS 1914, visited 1911; J Curle 1932; J Curle 1938. A S Robertson 1970. OS (RD) 1 February 1971.

Hydrographic Feeds: Solway Firth, Wigtown Bay

Hydrographic Resurgences: Solway Firth, Wigtown Bay