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RCAHMS Inventory: Selkirkshire
Date 1945 - 1955
Event ID 1086871
Category Project
Type Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1086871
We, Your Majesty's Commissioners, appointed to make an Inventory of the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions connected with or illustrative of the contemporary culture, civilisation, and conditions of life of the people in Scotland from the earliest times to the year 1707 and such further Monuments and Constructions of a date subsequent to that year as may seem in our discretion worthy of mention therein, and to specify those which seem most worthy of preservation, humbly present to Your Majesty this our Fifteenth Report, together with an Inventory of the ancient monuments of Selkirkshire, and a list of those which, in our opinion, are most worthy of preservation.
We record with grateful respect the receipt of the gracious message that accompanied Your Majesty's acceptance of the volumes embodying our Fourteenth Report with Inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Roxburghshire.
We desire to acknowledge the welcome assistance that we received, during the course of the Inventory survey, from the proprietors and occupiers of ancient buildings and sites throughout the County. In addition, our most cordial thanks are due to the Selkirkshire Antiquarian Society, many of whose members supplied us with local information; to Mr. J. B. Mason, F.S.A. Scot., the Society's President, who made his very interesting collection of coins and relics available for study; to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and the Christianbury Trust, which jointly financed the excavation of the Roman fort at Oakwood; to Mr. R. B. K. Stevenson, M.A., F.S.A., Keeper of the National Museum of Antiquities, and to the Department of Health for Scotland, for the use of photographs from their respective collections; to Mr. C. A. Raleigh Radford, M.A., F.B.A., F.S.A., and Professor K. H. Jackson, M.A., D. Litt., who gave us their expert opinions on an Early Christian carving and inscription; to Mr. A. R. B. Haldane, D. Litt.,W.S., who advised us on the subject of drove-roads; to Sir Thomas Innes of Learney and Kinnairdy, K.C.V.O., Lord Lyon King of Arms, who revised the heraldic matter in the Inventory; to the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Edinburgh, and particularly to Mr. R. J. A. Eckford, F.S.A. Scot., formerly one of its officers, for advice on geological. questions; and to Mr. D. L. Macintyre, V.C., and the staff of the Ministry of Works, Edinburgh.
Selkirkshire is small in area, and nature and history have combined to render it poor in remains of ancient monuments. The results of our survey have consequently been disappointing when compared with those obtained in the adjoining County of Roxburghshire, covered by our Fourteenth Report. Selkirkshire contains only one mediaeval building of any moment, and its later architecture is undistinguished; the most interesting monuments are the Roman works at Oakwood, whose existence was quite unsuspected before their discovery on an air-photograph by one of our officers, the Early Christian carving and inscription mentioned above, and a series of small towers dating from the early sixteenth century which evidently reflect contemporary social changes just as do the Georgian country-houses. What we said in our Fourteenth Report about the condition of the Roxburghshire monuments, and the prospect of their rapid deterioration, applies equally to those of Selkirkshire, where similar influences are at work.
In our Fourteenth Report we mentioned an emergency survey of marginal lands on which we have been engaged since 1951. This has now covered the greater part of Scotland south of the line of the Tay and the Highland foothills, and has included areas which had been inventoried before the introduction of aerial photography. In the course of this work we have made some important new discoveries, besides amassing information about a large number of monuments which may be damaged or destroyed in the future by agriculture, forestry or housing. The results cannot be published immediately, but they are of such interest that we have thought it well to attach a list of the newly discovered sites to this Report. Pending publication, the plans and descriptions can be seen and studied at our office.
We greatly regret the resignation, under pressure of other work, of Professor V. H. Galbraith, M.A., D.Litt., F.B.A., who had served as a Commissioner since 1943; and we humbly thank Your Majesty for the appointment of Mrs. A. I. Dunlop, O.B.E., PhD., D.Litt., LL.D., to take his place. Three new officers have recently joined our staff - Mr. John G. Dunbar, B.A., in 1953, Mr. Geoffrey D. Hay, A.R.I.B.A., in 1954, and Mr. Alasdair MacLaren, M.A., in 1956.
Wemyss, Chairman; I. A. Richmond; Stuart Piggott; W.D. Simpson; Ian G. Lindsay; W. Croft Dickinson; G. P. H. Watson; Annie I. Dunlop; Angus Graham, Secretary.
Edinburgh, 9th November 1956.
