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Broadlea henge

Archaeological sites in Dumfries and GallowayHenges in ScotlandScheduled Ancient Monuments in Dumfries and Galloway

Broadlea henge (grid reference NY 21946 74651) is a Neolithic or Bronze Age monument in the parish of Middlebie, Dumfries and Galloway. It is one of very few henge monuments in southern Scotland. The only other well preserved site is the considerably smaller Pict's Knowe near Dumfries. While Pict's Knowe is a single entrance, Class I henge, Broadlea has two entrances, making it a Class II henge. It measures 50m by 45m inside its ditch, which is as wide as 10m. The banks have been flattened over time but still rise in parts to around four feet high.The henge overlooks the Mein Water valley; the Roman fort of Birrens is located on the opposite side of the valley. The aerial photographs which identified the henge also identified a Roman marching camp, whose ditch passes through the north-west entrance of the henge and out through the south-east entrance.The monument is scheduled as "Birrens to Broadlee,Roman forts & camps & henge".

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Broadlea henge (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

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Latitude Longitude
N 55.06018 ° E -3.2235547 °
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DG11 3LQ
Scotland, United Kingdom
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Middlebie
Middlebie

Middlebie is a hamlet and parish in the historic county of Dumfriesshire in Dumfries and Galloway, south-west Scotland. It is approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Ecclefechan, and 6 miles (9.7 km) north-east of Annan, on the banks of the Middlebie Burn. Middlebie Parish consists of the ancient parishes of Middlebie, Pennersax (Pennersaughs) and Carruthers, united in 1609. Middlebie was the seat of a Presbytery from some time after the Reformation until 1743. It was then divided to form the Presbyteries of Langholm and Annan. Middlebie parish is now in the Presbytery of Annandale & Eskdale. It is bounded by the parishes of Tundergarth, Langholm, Canonbie, Half Morton, Kirkpatrick Fleming, Annan and Hoddam. The villages of Eaglesfield, Middlebie and Waterbeck lie within the parish, with Kirtlebridge on its southern boundary. Eaglesfield and Hottsbridge by Waterbeck still have primary schools. The school at Middlebie closed in 1972, nearly a hundred years after it opened. The Eaglesfield building is now just over a hundred years old. The former school in Waterbeck village, built about 1900, is now the public hall. Eaglesfield's public hall was built in 1892–3. Middlebie's old hall (a wooden ex-army building purchased in 1928) was demolished and a new one built in 2001. The West Coast Main Line railway runs through the parish from London to Glasgow. Previously the Caledonian Railway, the line formerly had a station at Kirtlebridge, where the writer Thomas Carlyle would alight before walking up to his parents farm at Scotsbrig above Middlebie. From Kirtlebridge the Solway Junction Railway ran down to Annan and across by the Solway viaduct to Cumbria. It was built to transport iron ore to the Lanarkshire steelworks. In 1841 the population of the parish was 2,154 and about sixty of these people were handloom weavers. There were inns and shops and the Lime Works Blacketridge. Tradesmen listed in 1841 include joiners, shoemakers, tailors, cloggers, masons, millers, carters, grooms, gardeners, dressmakers, straw-hat makers, etc. Today, only Eaglesfield still has a general store and post office. In 1841, as well as 73 farmers, 314 people were employed as agricultural labourers and 60 more as servants. Notable people from Middlebie include Matron Jane Bell who was sent as an orphan to Australia and William Brown (1888–1975), professor of plant pathology and head of the botany department at Imperial College of Science and Technology.