Archaeology Notes

Event ID 715367

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/715367

NT42NE 8 centred 46982 28480

The Burgh of Selkirk. The burgh most probably originated in a settlement which grew up close to the royal castle of Selkirk, itself in existence as early as the reign of David I.

The early history of the town is obscure, and the date of its erection into a royal burgh is unknown, although it was certainly such in 1366. (J M Thomson 1984)

The mediaeval burgh does not, however, seem to have been a place of much consequence, and the liberties and privileges of the town date, for the most part, from the 16th century. In shape the mediaeval burgh was roughly triangular, with the High Street or Main Street running from SW. to NE., expanding midway into the market-place, and ending in two gates: respectively the East Port and the West Port. From the East Port a street known as the Back Row trended slightly W. of S. until it met a third street, the Kirk Wynd, which ran SE. from the West Port. On the SE. of the junction a third gate, previously known as the South Port, Under Port, or Foulbridge Port, barred entry from the direction of Hawick. As its name implies, the Kirk Wynd gave access to the parish church, which Christopher Lowther described in 1629 as "a very pretty church, the form of it a cross house, the steeple having at each corner 4 pyramidal turrets." He continues, "The inhabitants at Selkrig (sic) are a drunken kind of people". (C Lowther 1894)

Nothing, however, now remains of the town as Lowther saw it, and in fact none of the surviving buildings seems to be earlier than the 18th century.

RCAHMS 1957.