In Scotland a number of bronze swords have been found which bear, as might have been anticipated, a close resemblance to those from England.
That shown in Fig. 352 was found in a moss at Leuchland, Brechin, in Angus, and is now in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S. Its length is 26½ inches, and the six rivets for attaching the hilt are still in the hilt-plate, which is doubly hooked at the end. A rib from the thicker part of the blade is prolonged part of the way down the hilt-plate as in Fig. 344. Another sword, broken at the hilt, but still 26¼ inches long, was found on the same farm. A find from Brechin is mentioned further on. A sword with four rivet-holes, like those from Arthur’s Seat, found on the borders between England and Scotland, and engraved by Grose,[1087] has the same peculiar end to the hilt-plate, as has one with five rivets from Methlick, Aberdeenshire, now in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh. Grose has also engraved two, each with six rivet-holes in the wings and two or three in the hilt-plate, found in Duddingston Loch,[1088] near Edinburgh, as well as the hilt-plate of another, found near Peebles, with slots in the wings and a slot and rivet-hole in the tang.
Some fragments of swords from this loch are in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh. Almost directly above Duddingston Loch, on Arthur’s Seat,[1089] two other swords were found during the construction of the Queen’s Drive. They are 26¼ inches and 24¼ inches long, in outline like Fig. 342, with one rivet-hole in each wing and two in the centre of the hilt-plate.
Two (23⅜ inches and 20½ inches) of the usual character, with nine rivets and hilts much like Fig. 354, have been found in Lanarkshire.[1090]
In Gordon’s “Itinerarium Septentrionale”[1091] a sword (24½ inches) found near Irvine, Argyleshire, is engraved, as is also one (26 inches) found in Graham’s Dyke near Carinn, which is said to be in the Advocates’ Library at Edinburgh. The figures do not seem accurate, but show seven rivets in one and three in the other. Gordon makes no doubt that these swords are Roman.
Other specimens have been found at Forse,[1092] Latheron, Caithness (25 inches), near the Point of Sleat,[1093] Isle of Skye (22½ inches), with two spear-heads and a pin. Another was found in Wigtonshire.[1094]
In the Antiquarian Museum are specimens from the following counties: Aberdeen, Argyle, Ayr, Edinburgh, Fife, Forfar, Kincardine, and Stirling.
In peat, at Iochdar,[1095] South Uist, were found two swords like that from Arthur’s Seat, the hilts of which are said to have been formed of wood. A leather sheath is also reported to have been present.
A bronze scabbard tip, such as will subsequently be described, was found, with four bronze swords (about 24 inches) and a large spear-head, near Brechin,[1096] Forfarshire; and in Corsbie Moss,[1097] Legerwood, Berwick, a bronze sword and spear-head were found, the former having, it is said, a scabbard, apparently of metal, but so much corroded as to fall in pieces on removal. This also may have been of leather stained by the metal.
