20/02/2010 - Big car park at NT 55308427 on the west side of North Berwick Law. Path up the hill is short but steep. Fantastic 360 view, Bass rock etc. Very cold February day when we were there. Well worth a visit.
Well I don't know how good your Middle Scottish is, but this is the tale of Gyre Carling, a giant witch /earth mother /that sort of thing. It's not for the delicate minded.
In Tyberius tyme, the trew imperatour,
Quhen Tynto hills fra skraiping of tour-henis was keipit,
Thair dwelt ane grit Gyre Carling in awld Betokis bour,
That levit upoun Christiane menis flesche, and rewheids unleipit ;
Thair wynit ane hir by, on the west syde, callit Blasour,
For luve of hir Iauchane lippis he walit and he weipit ;
He gadderit ane menzie of modwartis to warp doun the tour;
The Carling with ane yren club, quhen yat Blasour sleipit,
Behind the heil scho hat him sic ane blaw,
Quhil Blasour bled ane quart
Off milk pottage inwart,
The Carling luche, and lut fart
North Berwik Law.
.. from which I gather her neighbour fancied her and sent some moles to undermine her house - but she bashed him over the head and laughed so much she farted out North Berwick Law. Ahem.
The rest of the anonymous poem is written in the 'Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border' by Sir Walter Scott, online at the Tam Lin pages: http://www.tam-lin.org/texts/scott.html
Details of the settlement from RCAHMS CANMORE;
On the S slopes of North Berwick Law are many rock-faced terraces, some of which appear walled, others scooped to form huts or enclosures. On the SW shoulder are two adjoining, stone-walled rectangular enclosures measuring 33ft by 25ft and 22ft by 15ft. Further up the hill are three roughly circular stone-walled enclosures varying from 18ft in diameter to 33ft. On the same level, to the W, is a roughly quadrilateral area 18ft to 20ft across, enclosed by a setting of seven stones, with an entrance in the E wall.
Along the S base of the Law are many stone foundations and kitchen middens. A saucer-shaped midden was found in a quarry; finds, donated to the NMAS in 1923 by Dr Richardson, included assorted bone and stone implements.
Spread over the lower southern slopes of North Berwick Law are five groups of hut circles and enclosures, totalling twenty-one individual structures. A few are oval, but most are circular, varying from 8.0m to 13.0m in diameter; all are scooped. There are indications of cultivation in the form of wasted banks forming strip fields towards the E end of the settlement.
Details of the fort from RCAHMS CANMORE (taken from Feacham 1963);
This fort occupies the summit of North Berwick Law (613ft OD). The remains are mostly scanty, much of the material of the dry-built stone walls having toppled down the steep slopes of the hill. An area measuring about 500ft by about 300ft was enclosed by a wall running on a level of some 50ft below the summit. The terrace immediately below this on the SW was likewise enclosed.
The gentler slope which intervenes between the second wall and the foot of the hill is enclosed by a third wall, several other stretches of which can be seen round the other side of the hill . In this lowest enclosure it is still possible to see the striking remains of numerous circular platforms upon which houses once stood, and several examples of the lowest courses of the stone walls of these.
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