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Cavers, Scottish Borders
Cavers is a parish in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, in the former county of Roxburghshire, south and east of Hawick. The largest village in the parish is Denholm.
The name means "enclosure".
Robert The Bruce rewarded ‘The Good’ Sir James Douglas with lands spread across Scotland. The Emerald Charter of 1320 does not mention Cavers, although is commonly assumed to include it. Sir James had been Bruce's trusted lieutenant at Bannockburn in 1314, and was key to his power base in southern Scotland.
The lands were controlled by James, 2nd Earl of Douglas in right of his wife, and he, like so many other Douglases, was not to die in his bed, but on the field of battle, at Otterburn in 1388. James's sons and (a) daughter(s) were all illegitimate. To ensure their succession, he granted the lands of Drumlanrig (see Marquess of Queensberry) to his bastard son William and it is assumed that Cavers was granted to Archibald, but this happened several years after James' death.
Cavers remained in Douglas hands until 1878, and then through the female line until 1975 when James Palmer-Douglas moved away from Cavers and the remaining lands of the once vast estates in Roxburghshire were put on the market, James having slowly sold off much of the estate after the death of his grandmother in 1949.
Although little remains of the original structure, the masonry of the basement level is consistent with it being constructed in the later 15th or early 16th century as a five storey high tower, which was referred to in the 19th century as the "Warden's Tower". Although commonly said to incorporate part of a 13th-century castle this is not the case, and the stone bearing the date 1200 high up on the tower only dates to c1900.
In 12th-13th centuries the castle was possessed by the Baliols, but in 1352-3 passed to William, Lord Douglas, with the barony, by grant of Kind David II. In 1511, King James IV granted a new charter to James Douglas for the town and lands of Cavers including the castle, manor and mill. The castle in this charter probably refers to the existing tower and this is again mentioned in a charter of 1576.
The tower was subsequently modernised and the removal of a vault above the first floor in 1890 revealed a fine 13th Century piscina-niche. This feature is commonly said to be in its original position, indicating that part of the tower wall is older than the tower itself, but photographs predating the baronial works show that there was a window at this location previously. This is not a vestige of a Baliol castle, but was most likely removed from Melrose Abbey.
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Cavers, Scottish Borders
Cavers is a parish in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, in the former county of Roxburghshire, south and east of Hawick. The largest village in the parish is Denholm.
The name means "enclosure".
Robert The Bruce rewarded ‘The Good’ Sir James Douglas with lands spread across Scotland. The Emerald Charter of 1320 does not mention Cavers, although is commonly assumed to include it. Sir James had been Bruce's trusted lieutenant at Bannockburn in 1314, and was key to his power base in southern Scotland.
The lands were controlled by James, 2nd Earl of Douglas in right of his wife, and he, like so many other Douglases, was not to die in his bed, but on the field of battle, at Otterburn in 1388. James's sons and (a) daughter(s) were all illegitimate. To ensure their succession, he granted the lands of Drumlanrig (see Marquess of Queensberry) to his bastard son William and it is assumed that Cavers was granted to Archibald, but this happened several years after James' death.
Cavers remained in Douglas hands until 1878, and then through the female line until 1975 when James Palmer-Douglas moved away from Cavers and the remaining lands of the once vast estates in Roxburghshire were put on the market, James having slowly sold off much of the estate after the death of his grandmother in 1949.
Although little remains of the original structure, the masonry of the basement level is consistent with it being constructed in the later 15th or early 16th century as a five storey high tower, which was referred to in the 19th century as the "Warden's Tower". Although commonly said to incorporate part of a 13th-century castle this is not the case, and the stone bearing the date 1200 high up on the tower only dates to c1900.
In 12th-13th centuries the castle was possessed by the Baliols, but in 1352-3 passed to William, Lord Douglas, with the barony, by grant of Kind David II. In 1511, King James IV granted a new charter to James Douglas for the town and lands of Cavers including the castle, manor and mill. The castle in this charter probably refers to the existing tower and this is again mentioned in a charter of 1576.
The tower was subsequently modernised and the removal of a vault above the first floor in 1890 revealed a fine 13th Century piscina-niche. This feature is commonly said to be in its original position, indicating that part of the tower wall is older than the tower itself, but photographs predating the baronial works show that there was a window at this location previously. This is not a vestige of a Baliol castle, but was most likely removed from Melrose Abbey.