Roxburgh

 park, interesting place

 Upload a photo

Site of the ruined city of Roxborough and Roxborough Castle. Once the Scottish capital.

It’s hard to believe that just 500 years ago this picturesque and vacant pasture near Kelso on the Scottish borders was the site of one of the wealthiest cities in Scotland.

Founded by a King, a hub of international trade and holding a key strategic position, Roxburgh, along with Berwick, Stirling and Edinburgh, was one of the four great urban centres of Medieval Scotland. But whereas the other three are still thriving towns, ancient Roxburgh simply vanished. All that’s left of this once great borough are the few decaying remains of it’s castle.

So where is it, and why isn’t this field a buzzing metropolis like Edinburgh? The answer is we simply don’t know. There are no contemporary maps, documents are scarce, and amazingly, no archaeologists have been allowed to dig here until now.

So, a whole city, virgin archaeology, three days. Can we do it? I haven’t a clue, but whatever happens, it’s gonna stretch us to the limit.