Mantle Walls (Malton Walls), Ancrum

Borders: About 3 miles north and west of Jedburgh, to east of Ancrum village, near B6400 west of junction with A68, just west of Ale Water.

Ruin or site   NT 632246   OS: 74   TD8 6UJ

The site of Mantle Walls is signposted from the pretty village of Ancrum and there is an information board, though no remains to be seen on the ground.

Site of castle or old building above the Ale Water, a vestige of which still survived at the end of the 19th century. There were the remains of vaults and one gable in the 18th, but all are now gone. The building may have dated from the 13th century and had very thick walls and was famed for the associated gardens. Worked stone has been recovered.

  This may be the building shown on Blaeu”s map of Lauderdale (1654) at the north end (on the map) of the village of Nether Ancrum (now Ancrum village), while ‘Nether Ancrum’ is on Gordon (c.1640s). A village is marked on Pont (1596) and on Stobie (1770).

This has been suggested as a preceptory of the Knights of Malta, hence the name Malton Walls, although the name probably comes from ‘mantle’, meaning an enclosure. The lands were held by the bishops of Glasgow. William de Bondington, Bishop of Glasgow, had a residence here in the 1230s until his death in 1258. Alexander II signed charters from here in 1236. The site was excavated in 2019.

  Ancrum was burnt by the English in 1545, went to the Kerrs after the Reformation, then passed to the Scotts around 1670.
  Also see  Ancrum (Nether Ancrum) and Ancrum House (Over Ancrum).