Roland Ennos on the Neolithic Desire for Permanence December 18, 2020 On the north bank of the river Tweed in the Scottish Borders, overlooking Norham Castle on the English side of the river, is a strange church. Ladykirk, or Our Lady Kirk of Steill to give its full name, looks odd from the outside as it is strangely squat and roofed with huge flagstones. The inside, meanwhile, is dark, its thick stone walls and low stone vaulted roof being pierced by just a few small windows. The legend is that the church was built on the orders of James IV of Scotland in thanks for being saved from drowning in one of the deep pools or steills in the Tweed, possibly following his failed siege of Norham Castle in 1497. Its unusual all-stone construction was said to have been to enable it to resist “fire and flood” and so last forever. It is more likely, however, that James built it as a secure lookout post to allow him to keep an eye on the English defenders of Norham. Whatever its original purpose, even before it was completed, James was dead, cut down with the majority of the Scottish nobility and ten thousand Scottish soldiers on the battlefield of Flodden, following yet another of his opportunistic invasions of England.