Welcome to the Trimontium Heritage Centre
The Story of the Roman Capital of South Scotland
Trimontium was the name of the Three Hills Place - in the lee of the Eildon Hills one mile from the town of Melrose beside the village of Newstead in the Scottish Borders. In the 1st and 2nd centuries AD there grew up an enormous Romano-native complex - which lasted around 100 years. The Centre is in Melrose. The story is coming up!
The Museum displays are on the ground floor and there is wheelchair access throughout.
The Museum is open every day from the beginning of April to the end of October (£2 adults, £1.50 concessions or £5 family). Also we're open this half-term - Thurs Feb 9, 2012 to Sun Feb 19, 2012.
There are guided walks to the site each Thursday from April to October from the Heritage Centre (with wonderful views on the Walk) and tea included - £3 adults, £2.50 concessions, children free, dogs welcome, 1.30pm-5.15pm). (In July and August we guide the site Walk on Tuesday afternoons as well as Thursday afternoons. We tell ourselves that it keeps us fit).
Ian Brown proposes to guide a site-only, 'bare bones' walk on the nine Sunday afternoons in July and August 2012 from 2 to 4pm at a £2 flat rate. No booking - just turn up. Donald Gordon, Brian Mahler and Ian himself, as available, will continue with the full no-booking-needed Trimontium Walk at 1.30pm prompt from the heart of mediaeval Melrose, past the Abbey and its sights to the stonemasons' village of Newstead and then round the site, the 'high spot' being the views from Leaderfoot Viaduct, before tea in the Village Hall at 4.30pm and the return to Melrose.
The free Walk on Saturday 1 September, 2012 from Newstead Millennium Milestone at 1.30pm to Drygrange Roman Summerhouse (tea in Grange Hall at 3.30pm for a donation) is part of Scottish Archaeology Month and will involve 'dramatic interludes', including 'Horatius' at the (Old Drygrange) bridge, standing in, once more, pace Lord Macaulay, for the bridge at Rome.
School groups come throughout the year, keen to enjoy the interactive Route March (Latin salutes, marching song) followed by the Museum Tour (£2 per pupil, adults free) with sword demo and costumes..Arrangements are made on 01896 822651.
We are in the 'Premier League' of Accredited Museums and have 'iconic objects' on loan via the National Museums in Edinburgh from James Curle's first excavation at Newstead (1905 to 1910) - a centenary which we have been busy celebrating. His 450-page Report came out in 1911 ('A Roman Frontier Post and its People: the Fort of Newstead in the Parish of Melrose'} and there is to be published in Spring 2012 a book, under the aegis of the National Museums, indicating the work of the last one hundred years and the prospects for the future. As part of the Celebration we sponsored (Dec 2010) Allan Wilson's book (BAR 519, Oxford), about the finds from Borders sites, entitled 'Roman and Native in the Central Scottish Borders' - a bible of information on artefacts and history.
At the instigation of Dr John Reid, the Chairman, the Trust has fund-raised and commissioned Mr David Simon, Edinburgh illustrator, to produce an acrylic painting of Trimontium fort in its 2nd century AD heyday environment, from the Eildons to the Tweed, and this should be unveiled in Spring 2012 and used in our publicity. His Cramond fort illustration is a 'stunner'.
The 2012 Spring Celebrity Lectures will be held in Melrose Corn Exchange at 7.30pm on Thursdays 19 and 26 April and Thursday 10 May, 2012, under the title of 'A Trimontium Trilogy'. "Burnswark: Masada or Benbecula?" is the first, with 'Rome 2011: The Trust Trip' (including the British School at Rome) the second, and 'Jordan: Rome's Eastern Frontier' the third. Dr Reid, our Chairman, will play a large part in them all and we can't resist the general title pun of a 'Tr(e)iduum', a 3-day version of 'Trilogy'
Walter Elliot, our past Chairman and famous fieldwalker and 'finder' was awarded in 2011 the prestigious Dorothy Marshall Medal for his wonderful voluntary work over fifty years. We hope to include the 'laudation' in due course on the website.
If you would like to know what we got up to last year you can catch up with the highlights or have a look at our news items..
Other forthcoming events can be found on our News page, as soon as we can make time to put on the details.