Trans Dumfriesshire Galloway Natur Hist Antiq Soc 78 (third series)

Excavations carried out around the site of Warden's Dykes, in advance of road construction adjacent to the M74/M6 extension, demonstrated the presence of considerable activity adjacent to the putatively Iron Age enclosure, ranging in date from the Neolithic to the medieval period. Specialist reports include

a copper alloy Northumbrian styca, probably dating to c. AD 840

Report on a programme of building recording survey undertaken in connection with alterations to 53 George Street, Whithorn. The building forms the north side of the pend that leads up to the medieval priory and graveyard. The results of the survey suggest that an originally late medieval structure was subsequently rebuilt or altered in the post-medieval period. The original structure was interpreted as a gate-house with a building attached on the north side. There are indications that the pend may have originally been covered with a barrel-vault. The structural development of the building is considered within the context of the Premonstratensian priory and its relationship to the medieval burgh of Whithorn. Attention is drawn to a series of so-called `protection' or `Marian' marks that were discovered on a lintel above an early hearth.

Discussion of two examples from Kirkpatrick Fleming of a type of place-name formation in which the word hall is preceded by a bird-name.

On the basis of his research into late medieval/early post-medieval urban walls in southern Scotland, the author questions the claim made by R Toolis and C Cavanagh (in Trans Dumfriesshire Galloway Natur Hist Antiq Soc third series 76 (2002), pages 141--58) that the burgh ditch of Annan dates to no earlier than the later-sixteenth century.