What is recorded here

Greenlaw is a small Borders town that kept losing its county-town crown to Duns across centuries of legal argument. The church tower hides a tolbooth and prison inside a decorative steeple, built after Patrick Earl of Marchmont won back the town’s privileges in 1696. Around the present village, Old Greenlaw still holds the older hilltop identity, while earthworks and a possible medieval tower house remind the place that authority came and went before the stone rooms did.

Scotland's National Record of the Historic Environment records Greenlaw as Earthwork(s) (period Unassigned), Enclosure (period Unassigned), Tower House (medieval)(possible), Cannon Ball (period Unassigned). The official map says its point is accurate as follows: NGR given to the nearest 10m. The record does not by itself mean that the public may enter the place.

Greenlaw was held by the Maxwell family during the medieval period and is remembered for its strategic role in the border conflicts between England and Scotland.

The historic-place record does not grant public access. Check current conditions and ownership before entering land or a building.