Experts from Time Team concentrated their efforts on tracing the buried remains of the medieval town, granted its royal charter by King David I in the 12th century. In its heyday, Roxburgh had been an international trade centre. It counted among its visitors Italian bankers as well as the wool dealers who came to purchase fleeces from sheep reared in the Tweed valley. The exact dimensions of the riverside community are unknown, but there are understood to have been at least three churches, several schools and a sizeable population.
There were also a number of market places and Roxburgh almost certainly included the medieval equivalent of an industrial estate making pottery and other items for local inhabitants.