Scots' Dike
Warning: whilst seeking this cache keep an eye on your livestock and family, lest the Border Reviers sneak them away!
This cache is in the middle of the Debatable Lands: reiving, lawless country. Scots' Dike (dyik/dyck/dyke) is a 3.5 mile linear earthwork marking the boundary between Scotland and England as agreed under arbritation by the French Ambassador in 1552. The course of the dike is a straight line between the rivers Esk and Sark.
Scots' Dike has been under woodland for many years and commentators have suggested it could do with a little more TLC, for example in Little Jottings in the Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser.
You can learn more about this ancient monument on its Wikipedia page, its record on the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland website and on Visit Cumbria which has some nice aerial photos.
You can also learn more about this area and the Border Reivers at Tullie House Museum in Carlisle and along The Reiver Trail.
Cache 'n' dash. There is space to pull off the road near the cache. From the cache site you can look south to the line of trees on the horizon planted over the line of Scots Dike. It is possible to see the earthworks from the road where the strip of woodland meets the public highway (at N55 3.339, W3 2.591) on the bend in the road between Milltown and Englishtown. Please bring your own pen and take care to replace the cache so it is as well hidden as when you found it.