Selkirk Castle

The remains of Selkirk Castle lie in a public park at the southern end of Castle Street, and are known as the Peel Hill. The site is much eroded and grown over with trees, and is in fact easily missed if you don’t know what you are looking for! It is easily accessible although a bit of a walk, and is used extensively by dog walkers.

There was a castle at Selkirk as early as 1119, and was probably used as the seat for the royal hunting forest of Ettrick. As such, it may have been a simple timber hall within a ditch and palisade. The earthworks today consist of a low mound of modest motte type at the northern end of a high point that has been landscaped to form a rectangular platform overlooking Haining Loch. Some of could be the result of the instructions of Edward I to erect a new castle at Selkirk in 1302. This was probably destroyed by 1334, but could also have been the castle at Howden, a short distance to the south west.

HES Canmore database entry
Selkirk Castle Community Archaeology Project website

HES Canmore entry for Howden Motte