Cessford Castle

Cessford Castle is a large ruined mid-15th century

Border Reivers, many of whom served as Wardens of the Middle March

History

Cessford was built around 1450 by Andrew Ker, an ancestor of

Earl of Surrey who remarked: "It might never have been taken had the assailed been able to go on defending".^[1]

Berwick upon Tweed was captured by Richard, Duke of Gloucester in July 1482, Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland burnt a number of places in the area. At the end of his campaign, on 22 August 1482 he knighted twenty of his soldiers at the "mains of Sessford."^[2]

^ Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer Vol. I, p. 258,
^ Metcalfe, Walter Charles, A book of Knights Banneret etc.,, London (1885), p. 5-6, citing BL Cotton Ms. Claudius, c.iii, fol. 61-67: Hall, Edward, Chronicle (1809), p. 332

Groome, F.H. (1884) Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland in VI Vols. Edinburgh: Thomas C. Jack.