Jedburgh Castle was a

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

Jedburgh Jedburgh (; gd, Deadard; sco, Jeddart or ) is a town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders and the traditional county town of the historic county of Roxburghshire, the name of which was randomly chosen for Operation Jedburgh in su ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It was fought over during the

Wars of Scottish Independence The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The First War (1296–1328) began with the English invasion of ...

, and was demolished by the Scots commanded by Sir James Douglas of Balvenie in 1409.Sir James Balfour Paul, ''Scots Peerage'' Edinburgh 1904. Vol iii, p 173
/ref> The site of the original castle was used to build the reform prison based on

John Howard (prison reformer) John Howard FRS (2 September 1726 – 20 January 1790) was a philanthropist and early English prison reformer. Birth and early life Howard was born in North London, either in Hackney or Enfield. His father, also John, was a wealthy upholster ...

system, the construction of which started in 1820.

Jedburgh Castle Jail

In 1823 a

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

was built on the site to designs by

Archibald Elliot Archibald Elliot (August 1761 – 16 June 1823) was a Scottish architect based in Edinburgh. He had a very distinctive style, typified by square plans, concealed roofs, crenellated walls and square corner towers. All may be said to derive from ...

. It was modified in 1847 by Thomas Brown. This closed in 1868. The building was restored to an 1820s appearance in 1968 by Aitken and Turnbull. It opened to the public as Jedburgh Castle Jail and Museum. The museum features local history displays. On the Thursday after

Shrove Tuesday Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent), observed in many Christian countries through participating in confession and absolution, the ritual burning of the previous year's Holy Week palms, finalizing one's Lenten s ...

, the town has played a Ba Game since 1704. The uppies team use the castle to record their victories.

References

External links

Jedburgh Castle Jail and Museum
- official site at Scottish Borders Council
RCAHMS record of Jedburgh Castle JailSCRAN image: Jedburgh Castle Gaol
{{Castles in the Scottish Borders Castles in the Scottish Borders Category A listed buildings in the Scottish Borders Former castles in Scotland Defunct prisons in Scotland Demolished buildings and structures in Scotland Museums in the Scottish Borders Prison museums in the United Kingdom Local museums in Scotland Listed castles in Scotland Listed prison buildings in Scotland Jedburgh

Jedburgh Castle Jail

See also

References

External links