[1] Cavers Castle was a much extended tower house of the Douglas family dating back to the 15th or 16th century, and built upon the site of an earlier stronghold of the Balliols.

[4] During the Scottish Wars of Independence, Alexander Balliol of Cavers was captured – perhaps at Dunbar in 1296, and in return for his release fought for King Edward I of England from 1297,[5] although the English kept his son in the Tower of London as insurance for his good behaviour.

[8] A safe conduct was issued at Cavers by James Douglas in 1321 to permit a group of English cavalry to enter Scotland, but the castle is not specifically mentioned.

Given the general context of baronial castle building in Scotland and the Borders at this time, and the wealth and status of the Balliols, one might expect a ditched manorial centre, which may have been built, and defended, partially in timber.

Although a mid-13th-century piscina[21] has been built into the tower, it was set in place with cement, dating this event firmly to the late 19th or early 20th century.

[31] The lairds of Cavers are not prominent in records at this time, being overshadowed by the Kerr Wardens of the Middle March, whose authority was military and cross-border.

[32] From the disbanding of the guard on the border by King James VI in 1621,[33] any remaining military function the castle may have had ceased, and from this date onwards it served primarily as the residence of the Douglas lairds.

In January 1570 Richard Norton and his son Francis, English exiles from Naworth after the Rising of the North found a refuge at Cavers.

[37] Sir William Douglas, ninth laird of Cavers, surrendered his hereditary office of Sheriff of Roxburghshire to the crown in 1626 for £20,000 Scots.

[42] The military map drawn up by General William Roy of c1750 shows that the house was the centre of a large estate, but was not surrounded by much in the way of formal gardens.