An Account of Edin's Hall, in the Parish of Dunse, and County 

 of Berwick. By George Turnbull, of Abbey St. Bathans, 

 W.S., F.R.S.E. 



Introduction. — The ruins of Edin's Hall, lying within the di- 

 strict of our Society, exhibit a specimen of a peculiar kind of 

 building, of which I believe no other example exists in the Anglo- 

 Saxon part of Great Britain. 



It is to be regretted exceedingly that this singular edifice has 

 been allowed to fall into a state of almost entire decay. The 

 dilapidation of it must have been commenced at a remote period, 

 because, prior to the earliest accounts which we have of it, im- 

 mense quantities of its materials had been rolled down the banks 

 on which it stands, where they are still to be found. Until nearly 

 the end, however, of the last century, the walls of it remained 

 to the height of seven or eight feet, and the doorway was ex- 

 tant. About that period a large quantity of stones was carried 

 away from it to form dikes for the adjoining fields, an opera- 

 tion which greatly impaired the distinctive features of the build- 

 ing. What remained of these features is fast disappearing, in 

 consequence, as it is believed, of persons turning over and dis- 

 placing the stones, in the hope of finding articles of value or 

 curiosity among them. The ruins now exhibit, at first sight, 

 nothing but a considerable quantity of loose stones heaped to-" 

 gether in a large circle. On closer examination, however, the 

 building and its peculiarities are still discernible among the 

 rubbish. But such an examination will ere long prove fruitless, 

 so rapidly is the work of destruction going on. The present 

 therefore is the proper time for preparing, from actual inspection, 

 an account of this interesting monument of antiquity. Nor is 

 such a work unnecessary ; for although there exist several descrip- 

 tions of the ruins, yet all of them are more or less inaccurate in 

 their details *. These accounts, too, are meagre and unsatisfac- 

 tory on the importanjt- question as to the origin o f v the building, 

 a question which admits of further illustration. 



* See the Scots Magazine for 1764 (vol. xxvi. p. 431), Sir John Sin- 

 clair's Statistical Account of Scotland (parish of Dunse), Chalmers's Cale- 

 donia (vol. ii. p. 211), and Statistical Account published in 1841 (Berwick- 

 shire, Dunse). The notice of Edin's Hall given in the last of these pub- 

 lications was prepared by the author of the present paper, and on that ac - 

 count he is the more anxious to correct the inaccuracies it contains. For 

 these inaccuracies the only apology he can plead is, that having been called 

 on hurriedly to write the article, he was led to make some statements from 

 memory and others from testimony, without verifying them himself on the 

 spot. Such indirect evidence, however, ought always to be adopted with 

 caution. 



