Peel Hill, motte and bailey castle, Selkirk

Heritage listing

Date Added 06/10/1970 Last Date Amended 08/07/2015 Type Secular: castle; motte Local Authority Scottish Borders Parish Selkirk NGR NT 47002 28095 Coordinates 347002, 628095 — The monument is the remains of a motte and bailey castle. It was constructed before AD 1119, and was rebuilt as a pele (or peel) by Edward I in 1302. The visible remains comprise a large, generally flat-topped mound with a round motte at the N end. The monument stands around 190m above sea level at the S end of the town of Selkirk, between the S end of Castle Street and Haining Loch. It forms part of the designed landscape of The Haining. The monument occupies the S end of an irregular ridge that extends NNE-SSW from Selkirk towards Haining Loch. The S end of the ridge has been modified during the creation and remodelling of the castle to form a mound that measures about 145m NNE-SSW by 110m transversely. The highest feature is the motte at the N end. The summit slopes down to the SW and measures about 12m in diameter. Although the motte is now rounded and spread, its base is well defined to the S and E. The bailey lies to the S and SW. Its interior measures about 80m WSW-ENE and is relatively level, being defined by clear breaks of slope to the W and SW and more gradual ones to the E and SE. Beyond the bailey, the ground slopes away steeply to the SW and S. A long linear hollow aligned N-S bounds the motte and bailey on the E side. It measures 100m long and 16m wide and probably represents the remains of large ditch. The scheduled area is irregular on plan, to include the remains described above and an area around them within which evidence relating to the monument s construction, use and abandonment is expected to survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map. The scheduling specifically exclu

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.