Curriestanes cursus
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox historic site||name=Curriestanes cursus|native_name=|image=|caption=|locmapin=Scotland Dumfries and Galloway|map_caption=|coordinates={{coord|55.060081|-3.6299526|display=inline,title}}|location=|area=|built=|architect=|architecture=|governing_body=|designation1=Scheduled monument|designation1_offname=|designation1_date=28 September 1993|designation1_number={{Historic Environment Scotland|num=SM5738|short=yes}}}}
Curriestanes cursus ({{gbmapping|NX 95990 75170}}) is a large neolithic ditched enclosure on the outskirts of Dumfries, in the parish of Troqueer, Dumfries and Galloway.{{Cite web|url=https://canmore.org.uk/site/65621/curriestanes|title=Curriestanes {{!}} Canmore|last=|first=|date=|website=canmore.org.uk|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191117151444/https://canmore.org.uk/site/65621/curriestanes|archive-date=17 November 2019|access-date=2019-11-17}} It is visible only from aerial photography. It is, along with Pict's Knowe, one of two scheduled monuments in Troqueer parish.{{Cite web|url=http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/SM5738|title=Curriestanes,cursus E of (SM5738)|last=|first=|date=|website=portal.historicenvironment.scot|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181103041112/http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/SM5738|archive-date=3 November 2018|access-date=2019-11-17}}
Description
Curriestanes is an earthwork cursus. While familiar from cursus sites in England, these types of monuments are less common than timber cursuses in Scotland. Less than fifteen monuments of this type have been found in Scotland and only five including Curriestanes have been excavated.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/922966652|title=Reading between the lines: the neolithic cursus monuments of Scotland|last=Brophy|first=Kenneth|publisher=Routledge|year=2016|isbn=9781317430025|location=Abingdon, Oxon|pages=72|oclc=922966652}} Curriestanes is rare in having an entrance gap in one of its terminals, a feature known from only a handful of sites in the UK.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/922966652|title=Reading between the lines: the neolithic cursus monuments of Scotland|last=Brophy|first=Kenneth|publisher=Routledge|year=2016|isbn=9781317430025|location=Abingdon, Oxon|pages=30|oclc=922966652}} The cursus is particularly wide at 100m, with a known area of at least three hectares.{{Cite book|url=http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2476/|title=The Cursus Monuments of Scotland|last=Brophy|first=Kenneth|publisher=University of Glasgow (unpublished PhD thesis)|year=1999|isbn=|location=|pages=62}} Only 3 other cursus monuments in Scotland are wider: East Linton, Brioch and Monktonhill.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/922966652|title=Reading between the lines: the neolithic cursus monuments of Scotland|last=Brophy|first=Kenneth|publisher=Routledge|year=2016|isbn=9781317430025|location=Abingdon, Oxon|pages=73|oclc=922966652}} The ditches are irregular and do not appear to have been intended to be exactly straight which suggests that they may have been built in short segments.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/922966652|title=Reading between the lines: the neolithic cursus monuments of Scotland|last=Brophy|first=Kenneth|publisher=Routledge|year=2016|isbn=9781317430025|location=Abingdon, Oxon|pages=77|oclc=922966652}} The ditches are wide, 7m, and shallow, no deeper than 0.6m.
Context
Unlike England, where cursus monuments have been known and studied for hundreds of years, the study of cursus monuments is a recent phenomenon. Before 1976, when RCAHMS began its aerial photography programme, only one definite cursus site was known in Scotland: Gallaberry in Dumfreis and Galloway.{{Cite book|title=Place and Memory: Excavations at The Pict's Knowe, Holywood and Holm Farm, Dumfries and Galloway, 1994-8|last=Brophy|first=Kenneth|publisher=Oxbow Books|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84217-247-6|editor-last=Thomas|editor-first=Julian|editor-link=Julian Thomas|location=Oxford|pages=158|chapter=The cursus monuments of south-west Scotland}} Over 50 Scottish sites have now been identified.{{Cite book|title=Place and Memory: Excavations at The Pict's Knowe, Holywood and Holm Farm, Dumfries and Galloway, 1994-8|last=Brophy|first=Kenneth|publisher=Oxbow Books|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84217-247-6|editor-last=Thomas|editor-first=Julian|editor-link=Julian Thomas|location=Oxford|pages=159|chapter=The cursus monuments of south-west Scotland}} These are found in two main geographical concentrations, in lowland Angus and Perthshire and another in Dumfries and Galloway, for the most part in and around the Nith valley. Curriestanes is one of twelve such monuments in Dumfries and Galloway.
200m to the south of the terminal of the monument, there is a ring-ditch, also only visible as a cropmark.{{Cite book|title=Place and Memory: Excavations at The Pict's Knowe, Holywood and Holm Farm, Dumfries and Galloway, 1994-8|last=Brophy|first=Kenneth|publisher=Oxbow Books|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84217-247-6|editor-last=Thomas|editor-first=Julian|editor-link=Julian Thomas|location=Oxford|pages=162|chapter=The cursus monuments of south-west Scotland}}