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Wark on Tweed (usually referred to simply as
Wark) is a village in the
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
county of
NorthumberlandNorthumberland is a ceremonial county and unitary district in the North East of England. It borders Cumbria to the west, County Durham to the south and Tyne and Wear to the south east, as well as having a border with the Scottish Borders council area to the north, and nearly eighty miles of North...
. It lies about south west of
Berwick-upon-TweedBerwick-upon-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town in the county of Northumberland and is the northernmost town in England, on the east coast at the mouth of the River Tweed. It is situated 2.5 miles south of the Scottish border....
It is on the south bank of the
River TweedThe River Tweed is long and flows primarily through the Borders region of England and Scotland. It rises on Tweedsmuir at Tweed's Well near where the Clyde, draining northwest, and the Annan draining south also rise. "Annan, Tweed and Clyde rise oot the ae hillside" as the Border saying has it....
that can be considered the border between England and
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
Landmarks
The ruins of Wark on Tweed castle, originally an early 12th century
motte-and-baileyA motte-and-bailey is a form of castle situated on a raised earthwork and surrounded by a protective fence. Many were built in Britain, Ireland and France in the 11th and 12th centuries, favoured as a relatively cheap but effective defensive fortification that could repel most small...
, lie at the west end of the village. The castle (alternatively referred to as Carham Castle) was strategically important in the wars between Scotland and England, as the border cuts south from the Tweed not far upstream. The view of Wark for the Scottish and English was therefore uncomfortably or conveniently, respectively, close to
RoxburghThe destroyed royal burgh of Roxburgh was an important trading burgh in High Medieval to early modern Scotland. In the Middle Ages it had at least as much importance as Edinburgh, Stirling, or Berwick-upon-Tweed, for a time acting as de facto capital .-History:Its significance lay in its position...
, and a good base for English advances into Tweedale. It was demolished and rebuilt on several occasions between the 12th and 16th centuries. It is one of a number of supposed locations for the garter incident behind the naming of the
Order of the GarterThe Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry, or knighthood, originating in medieval England, and presently bestowed on recipients in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms; it is the pinnacle of the honours system in the United Kingdom...
.
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