Duns

Parish No 735 Duns is located within the County of Berwickshire which is now known as the Scottish Borders. Duns was originally associated with an Iron Age Hill Fort [the Iron Age spans 721 BC – AD 42], and lies approximately 15 miles west of Berwick-upon-Tweed. For a map showing the location of Duns within Berwickshire please click here.

The former Hill Top Fort was replaced by a Castle in 1320 by Robert the Bruce.

"A considerable town and parish in the county of Berwick. The town is delightfully situated in the centre of the county, encompassed on the W. N. and E. by the Lammermuir hills, a fine plain 25 miles in extent lying towards the S. The ancient site of the town was on the top of the beautiful hill called Dunse Law, which is elevated from a base of about 2 1/2 miles in circumference to the height of 630 feet above the level of the sea. The town was afterwards rebuilt at the foot of the hill. The small water of Whittadder passes by it ... Dunse contains about 2400 inhabitants. The parish of Dunse is an oblong square of 8 miles by 5, extending over a part of the district of Lammermuir, and over the head of that fertile plain called the Merse ...Population in 1801, 3163."

from Gazetteer of Scotland published 1806, Edinburgh.

Population

Here are some figures showing the parish's population through time:

1755	2593	1831	3469	1881	3355
1788	3324	1841		1891
1801	3157	1851		1901
1811	3082	1861	3595
1821	3773	1871

Social Life and Customs

For a description of Duns Reivers' Week see Chapter 19 of The Borders Book.

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