County town: Jedburgh
Roxburghshire was one of the Border counties of Scotland, its sheriffdom established from the 12th century. Roxburgh itself was a major medieval burgh and fortress that was destroyed in the 15th century.
Roxburghshire is a Border county of the Tweed and Teviot valleys, rolling hills, and some of the finest abbeys in Britain. Melrose, Jedburgh, and Kelso abbeys — all founded in the 12th century under David I's programme of monastic reform — are extraordinary ruins of considerable beauty. Sir Walter Scott lived at Abbotsford on the Tweed, transforming the landscape of Roxburghshire in the early 19th century through his novels and his romantic attachment to its history. The county was repeatedly ravaged by English armies and cross-border raiding throughout the medieval period. James II of Scotland was killed at the siege of Roxburgh Castle in 1460 when a cannon exploded beside him.
The Statistical Accounts of Scotland — the Old Statistical Account (1791–99) and the New Statistical Account (1834–45) — provide detailed parish-by-parish descriptions of Roxburghshire at two moments of transformation. Aubrey draws on these accounts when generating reports for Scottish locations, providing historical context specific to the parish and county.
Scotland's 33 traditional counties, established as sheriffdoms from the 12th century onward, were the administrative framework of the country until the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1975 replaced them with regional councils. They remain the reference framework for historical records, genealogy, and cultural identity.
This page introduces the historic county of Roxburghshire. A full Aubrey report for a location within it pulls together everything the record actually holds about that ground, from the geology beneath it to the last coin dropped in a field:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Read in-depth research reports on notable historical places across the UK — explore →
Roxburghshire contains 257 scheduled monuments — sites of national importance protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
Browse scheduled monuments in ScotlandAn Aubrey report for a specific location in Roxburghshire draws on historical maps, archaeological records, Domesday data, Statistical Account records, and landscape history to tell the full story of any site in the county.