Duns

Town and former burgh in Scottish Borders unitary authority, Scotland, 24 km/15 mi west of Berwick-on-Tweed; population (2001) 2,600. Destroyed in 1545, the town was rebuilt on its present site from 1588, and later became the county capital of former Berwickshire.

In 1639 the Covenanters camped on the hilltop of Duns Law. John Duns Scotus, a Franciscan monk and theologian who taught in Paris, is believed to have been born in Duns about 1265. Criticism of his teachings brought about the derogatory term ‘dunce’.