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Bruce's Cave, set high in a 'scaur'
(cliff face) near Lintalee Glen, a picturesque gorge that cuts its
way through the land up towards the Dunion Hill. I was in my early
teens when I was bold enough to climb into Bruce's Cave and that was
many years ago. Certainly older and perhaps a wee bit wiser (Hmmmm)
but keen to revisit Bruce's Cave to photograph the inside
for this web site, I was fortunate to be accompanied by my son Jamie.
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We made our way up the glen
then headed for the top of the cliff where we tied a rope to a tree
then hoisted the other end of the rope over the cliff face and down
past the cave below.
The rope was hanging slightly right of the cave
rather than directly in line with it where there was a risk of unsettling some overhanging rocks.
Looking over the cliff top and taking
into account the height and the rocky terrain below, we
decided against climbing down the rope.
With a Lowpro rucksack full of camera
equipment and a tripod, I probably wouldn't have made it
anyway. |
| This view is from the top of the scaur looking down at the river Jed.
Jamie, a Royal Engineer by trade assured me his knot would
hold and was in no danger of slipping or working lose. |
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| Scrambling back down
the side of the cliff to the opening of the glen we slowly made our way along the base of the cliff and the river Jed.
Traversing tree routes and branches with
brambles and rocks forcing
us to wade in the Jed most of the time, we eventually reached a
point where we could start to climb.
I don't recall it being so difficult
in my younger days ;-)
We made our way up the base
of the cliff and used the rope to haul ourselves up the last few
metres until we were both standing on a narrow ledge just to the
right of the cave entrance.
The photograph on the right shows the
ledge which was just wide enough to take my rucksack and
tripod. This point is some 4 or 5 meters below the entrance to
the cave.
The section above this is very
difficult and without the rope might have proved impossible to
climb. |
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The most
difficult and dangerous move is trying to get inside the mouth
of the cave. I remember as a boy the fear of stretching out
one leg, placing it on a narrow ledge, reaching out with the
left hand for a finger grip then bringing the right foot over
to join the left before shifting your balance and hauling
yourself up and around into the cave.
It was my idea to try and photograph
Bruce's Cave so I thought it only fair that I should be the
first to attempt the move. Alas I could not complete the move;
fear, lack of confidence, feet too big for the wee ledge and a
dodgy hip, I just didn't feel confident.
We swapped places and Jamie gave it a
go. He too found it difficult and after the third attempt,
hoisted himself up and into the cave.
The small handhold he used to pull
himself up with was bordered by a large crack running
vertically and a sizeable chunk of rock was ready to break
free.
The photograph on the left shows
Jamie in the opening of Bruce's Cave. Jamie later admitted it
was probably one of the scariest moments in his life although
he looks pretty chuffed to be sitting there.
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So what's inside Bruce's Cave, other
than darkness? Thanks to Jamie and his Fuji S5000, we can have a look.
Inside Bruce's Cave
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I've
created this image to try and give you a better idea of what
the inside looks like and where the other caves are
positioned. The centre photograph is taken from just inside
the opening and the main cave looks on a tilt. If you look at
the green moss / plant life round the base of the cave, you
can see it is in fact level and I guess this is the water line
or in this case, the 'damp line' of the cave.
Both
the left and right caves are extremely dark inside as they are
set back from the entrance and virtually no light enters them.
They are about 3 to 3.5 metres in diameter and about 2.5
metres high. The main cave from front to back is approximately
8 to 9 metres deep and whoever created these caves must have
shifted some weight of rock.
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A view
from the rear of the cave this time, lit by flash as are
all of the internal photographs.
The main A68 road runs
alongside that field you can see below and the entrance
to Ferniehirst Castle is just off to the right.
If there are any geologists out
there who can comment on the type of rocks and the
lighter coloured seam that runs its way through the
cave, I'd be interested to find out more about the
geology of the place.
Why was the cave created, was
it purely for concealment? When was it carved from the
rock face, is there any way to tell? I'd love to know
the answers and if any one can shed more light on
Bruce's
Cave, please contact me. |
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Left
Cave |
Right
Cave |
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| The shot above is
looking into the cave on the left. Jamie commented that
the roof didn't look too clever and there were some
large slabs of rock that looked a bit precarious. |
The
dark patch on the floor of the right hand cave is a
couple of rock pigeons that never moved from their nest.
It was very dark other then for a brief second when the
flash fired so I guess the poodies felt safe. |
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A close up view of
the two rock pigeons that never budged wile Jamie
photographed the caves from all angles and photographed
everything twice.
I discovered his first set of
images were taken at 1 megapixel and as this was
probably the first time in history that the inside of
Bruce's Cave had been photographed, I 'suggested' he
retake them again at 6 megapixels.
The images you see here are low
resolution copies to speed the display of the web page
but the originals are good quality. |
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The
Locality |
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The
caves at Linthaughlee (Lintalee) are only a few miles from the town of
Jedburgh and about the same distance from the site of 'Old
Jethart', the original location of Jedburgh. Close to Jedburgh
in August 1388, forces gathered for a raid into
Northumberland which culminated in a battle at Otterburn.
About 7 miles south of Lintalee lies Carter Ridge, the scene of the conflict between the
opposing wardens in 1575, known in history and celebrated in
song as "The Raid of the Reidswire "—one of the
many contests decided by the timely arrival of the burghers of
the Jed.
The following
text is extracted from an interesting website based on the
history of 'Scotlands greatest military commander,James Lord of Douglas'
edited by John Snow.
EARLIER
IN HISTORY
From the day that a
young James Douglas swore allegiance to Robert the Bruce,
while on his way to his coronation at Scone, he remained The
Bruces most loyal and constant companion. Douglas became an
incredibly talented military commander and the scourge of his
enemies.
During the winter of 1316-17 command
of the English northern forces was in the hands of Edmund
Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel. He had a large force at his
disposal but as a truce was in operation and Bruce out of the
country in Ireland, there were few Scots raiding for his
forces to combat. Rather than have his force sit idle, the
Earl embarked upon an ambitious plan to clear the Jedwood
Forest, to deny it as a refuge for Scottish raiding parties.
Each of his soldiers equipped with an axe they set off over a
pass at Carter Bar into Scotland. Douglas who was at his newly
built Manor of Lintalee near to Jedburgh, with only his own
personal retinue of fifty men at arms and a company of archers
set off to ambush the English van, led by Thomas De Richmond.
Hiding in the woods south of Lintalee,
Douglas's archers fired a volley of arrows into the leading
group of English, then the rest of the Scots came out of the
trees to assail the leading English troops. Douglas himself
slaying De Richmond with a dagger. Quickly before the English
could regroup or even realise fully what had just transpired,
the Scots disappeared back into the trees.
Arundel then withdrew from the forest
out of danger. Douglas on returning to Lintalee found a
foraging party of English had stopped to eat the ready
prepared meal that Douglas and his men had left. These men too
were quickly despatched.
Shortly after this episode Robert
Neville of Raby, also known as "The Peacock of the
North", decided that he had heard enough of this Douglas.
He joined the garrison at Berwick and made it known that he
would be happy to do battle with Douglas. Taking up the
challenge, Douglas planted his standard outside the walls of
Berwick. Neville with a body of followers including three of
his brothers took up a defensive position on a nearby hilltop.
Douglas and his men charged the position and after a hard
fight Douglas himself killed Robert Neville and all his
brothers were taken captive.
After these two episodes there
were not many prepared to meet in battle with Douglas. The
English, especially the north countrymen began to think of
Douglas as the "The Black Douglas".
END
Now given that
Douglas had his manor at Lintalee, could it be that this be
the real Bruces Cave? :-)
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Lintalee House present
day.
Off to the right of the photograph is
the cliff forming one side of Lintalee Glen.
Old sketches of
this area depict the cave being on this side of the glen but
unfortunately after a heavy rockfall, the only remaining
evidence of this is a concave hollow in the cliff face still
visible today as depicted in the centre of the photograph below.
The
remains of a cave are still visible on the cliff face in the
photograph above. 
This
photograph was taken 50 yards upstream from where the Lintalee
Burn flows into the river Jed. |
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And so it is also said, "High
behind Jedburgh, over the Dunion, on the cliff above the river at the
farm of Lintalee, lie the remains of the impregnable camp held in
Bruce’s time by "the good Lord James" of Douglas".
Barbour describes it in his famous historic poem.
Now spek we of the Lord of
Douglas
That left to kep the marchis was.
He gert set wrychtis that war sleye
And in the halche of Lyntailé
He gert thaim mak a fayr maner:
And quhen the howssis biggit wer
He gert purway him rycht weill thar;
For he thowcht to mak ane infar
And to mak gud cher till his men.
From this eyrie again and again
Douglas sallied, at every sally dealing some deadly blow to the enemies
of his country, till he had not only brought all the eastern Border to
the king of Scotland’s peace, but till the mere mention of his name
had become a terror:
The drede of the Lord of Dowglas,
And his renoune, sa scalit was
Throw-out the marchis of Ingland,
That all that thar-in war wonnand
Dreci him as the fell dewill of hell;
And yeit haf Ik herd oft-syss tell
That he sa gretly dred wes than
That quhen wiwys walde childre ban
Thai wald, rycht with an angry face,
Betech thaim "to the Blak Douglas."
Over the years, there have been many different
stories about Robert the Bruce and where he saw the spider. Some
say the Isle of Skye, others say he was in Ireland and there is even a
cave near Annan in Dumfries that claims to be the place. Anyway
to the story.
Sometime after the death of William Wallace, Robert the Bruce was hiding
out in a cave. One day he noticed a spider that was building a web. The
wind whipping into the cave would blow the web down. The spider would
simply crawl back up and begin again. However, every time the spider
seemed to get the strands of the web attached, the wind would come along
once again and tear down the spider's hard labour. Again and again the
spider would set about the task of building the web. Robert the Bruce
sat and watched the spider for hours as it continued, over and over to
get up and begin it's work all over again. Near the end of the day as
Robert watched, the spider managed to anchor enough thread so that the
web had the strength to withstand the wind. As he watched, the spider
finished the web.
It was this that told Robert what to do. It was this spider that showed
him that the way to a free Scotland would not be easy, but must be
attempted over and over until it was achieved.
Another such story goes like this.
"There is a charming, but probably fictional story,
of Bruce hiding in a cave from his pursuers. As he sat alone in the
cold, damp cave he noticed a spider trying to spin a web in the corner
of the cavern. The spider could not get its webs to stick to the moist
surfaces, but instead of quitting, it tried again and again until
finally it had weaved a small section, adding more web to that section
each time. According to the legend, this is where Bruce (who has come to
be called 'the Bruce"), got the idea to take Scotland one small section
at a time.
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There was obviously an 'association'
between Douglas and The Bruce, and with the true location of Bruces Cave
up for debate, perhaps the caves at Lintalee are THE Bruce's Cave ;-)
If you simply want to
view a selection of photographs taken in and around Bruce's Cave, Lintalee
and the glen, I'll be adding a link here when I find the time.
A Note on Copyright
Many of the
documents on this website were found on the Internet or Usenet and are
believed either to be public domain or to fall within the "fair use"
limitations of copyright. But if anyone considers a publication on this
site an infringement of his or her copyright, please contact the
Webmaster and it will be withdrawn immediately. No angry e-mail is
required.
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