We arrived in Berwickshire, in the wide valley of the River Tweed and its tributary the Whiteadder, for our stay in Allanton. All around were huge combines, tractors and trailers cutting, winnowing, baling and carrying off barley and specialist wheat. This is a land of big estates and large farms. The population is much sparser […]

FULLY BOOKED Join AOC Archaeology Group’s geophysics team for an intro to geophysical survey at Sprouston investigating prehistoric through to early medieval activity, as part of Uncovering the Tweed. We will be investigating the context of a series of cropmarks depicting activity from prehistory to present. Meet for an introduction to resistivity survey technique, then […]

Beneath our feet lie geological clues about our distant past and evidence of how life evolved on Earth. In Berwickshire and north Northumberland, the most common rocks are Carboniferous limestones, mudstones and sandstones. In the lowlands surrounding the River Tweed, the bedrock is covered by thick glacial deposits of clay, silt and sand. Embedded in […]

The Union Chain Bridge spans the River Tweed between the parishes of Hornclifffe in Northumberland and Hutton in Berwickshire, five miles upstream from Berwick on Tweed. It was built in 1820 by an engineer who lived in Eyemouth, named Captain Samuel Brown. Designed using innovative engineering techniques for the time, the Bridge is locally loved […]

For centuries, salmon fishing on the River Tweed shaped local life and livelihoods. Although net fishing ended in the 1980s, one historic tradition continues each year at Norham. Since Victorian times, the Vicar of Norham has offered prayers at Pedwell Landing at the start of the salmon fishing season, asking for a blessing on the […]

Just ten miles from the English border, Jedburgh Abbey is one of Scotland’s most striking monastic ruins. Its story stretches back to the 9th century, when the area was part of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria and the first church was gifted to the See of Lindisfarne. In 1118, Prince David, later King David I, […]