Workmen have uncovered a medieval village on the outskirts of Selkirk.
Contractors had been aware that the site, next to the football pitch and the Philiphaugh battleground, was of historic importance, but this was the last thing they were expecting.
Scottish Borders Council archeological officer Chris Bowles said: “You don’t find medieval villages every day. It’s exciting.
“We’ve got crop works on the field that suggest what we thought was going to be an Anglo-Saxon village and crop markings suggesting a graveyard and church and, of course, the battlefield.
“We had a feeling we would find battlefield artefacts but we never in a million years thought we would find a medieval village!”
Read more on this story in this week’s Southern Reporter, out on Thursday.