Archaeology Notes

Event ID 711673

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/711673

NT24SE 17 2502 4038.

(NT 2502 4038) Site of Peebles Castle (NR)

OS 25" map (1856)

There was a royal castle at Peebles in the reign of David I (1124-53). High Street runs directly to the site of the castle, believed to be a motte which occupied the neck of a promontory formed by the junction of the Eddleston Water with the River Tweed. The site is marked by a prominent, steep-sided mound, apparently natural, which has Peebles parish church on its E end. The flat summit measures 70ft by 130ft, though it may originally have been longer. There are no visible structural remains. Excavations were carried out in 1977 by the DoE in advance of the building of an extension to the church hall; a report is not yet available. When a new prison and county rooms were erected in 1841, immediately N of the church, some of the foundations of the castle are said to have been found. Sherds of medieval pottery from the summit of the mound were donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) in 1961-2.

It is probable that the castle was destroyed during the Wars of Independence, for in 1334 when Edward Baliol granted several towns, castles and counties of the Borders to Edward III, only the 'town and county of Peebles' were mentioned, not its castle. Also, from 1327 there ceased to be any mention of the grant of ten shillings annually made to the Chapel of the Castle of Peebles. The Castlehill appears to have come into the town's possession in the 15th century.

SBS Peebles 1977; RCAHMS 1967, visited 1964; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1964

No further information.

Visited by OS (EGC) 27 February 1962