Duns was created a Burgh of Barony in 1490, and is a former county town of Berwickshire in the Scottish Borders. The feudal Laird is Alexander Hay of Duns and Drumelzier. His family acquired Duns Castle in 1696, and were responsible for the present Gothic edifice; prior to that, it had been a substantial Pele tower belonging to the descendants of the Earl of Moray, who had been granted the estate by Robert I.