This exemplary study deals with an extremely important and interesting site near Coldstream, just north of the modern Anglo-Scottish border. Although the data were published in a series of interim reports between 1980 and 1985, this synthesis, authored by the original excavator with specialist reports by leaders in their fields, represents a very significant advance in our understanding of the site. The Hirsel is a multi-period site, with evidence primarily of, first, Neolithic activity, then early medieval through to early modern, but the excavators emphasise the presence of late prehistoric, Roman and post-Roman activity on the site as well. The period from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries AD, however, produced the bulk of the finds, and the Hirsel's great significance lies in its contribution to comprehension of the development of small churches, not only in northern England and southern Scotland but also further afield.

The site lies near the confluence of the rivers Leet and Tweed, in the shadow of Hirsel Law, an impressive hillfort site presenting parallels with Yeavering in Northumberland. The volume reports survey work, but not excavation, of Hirsel Law, and the authors stress the site's potential and its central importance for understanding the wider landscape. Hirsel Law is attested as a meeting place and site for mustering troops into the seventeenth century, and its brief treatment here indicates the importance of understanding the landscape over the longue durée and through as many sources as possible.

The excavated area at the Hirsel itself consisted primarily of the remains of a church, which was demolished and the site sealed before the end of the fifteenth century, and a cemetery. Given the absence of excavated church sites within the Tweed watershed, the publication represents a major contribution to our knowledge both regionally and nationally. The area of land in which the Hirsel sits is first mentioned in the 940s as a property of the church at Chester-le-Street, but the Hirsel itself, when first documented in the 1160s, belongs to the cross-border dynasty of the Earls of Dunbar. In its early stages, the church appears to have been a manorial chapel, but it was later gifted to Coldstream Priory. The site thus exemplifies in miniature the complex ethnic and cultural power relationships characteristic of the region at this period, as well as the different kinds of status and patronage a small church foundation might have had.

The church began as a single-celled structure in the tenth century, and was later extended, first with an eastern apse, then with a nave, itself later strengthened and extended. These later phases cut contexts radiocarbon-dated to the eleventh to twelfth centuries. Particularly notable is the identification of a bell-casting pit, probably twelfth century, within the nave, and Cramp speculates that the strengthening of the west wall might have been to support a bell-cote. The later phases of the church show the first uses of some finely dressed and carved architectural stone, and this change in investment may be associated with a rebuild after the church came under the ownership of Coldstream Priory. In the final phases of use the nave changed function, with evidence of internal sub-divisions, hearths, animal bones, arrow heads and a latrine pit. The building was finally burnt, and demolished. Cramp notes the distinctively masculine character of the overall assemblage from this final period of use, and discusses the possibility that this represents temporary military occupation, which fits in well with what is known of the area in the later Middle Ages.

The report includes analysis of around 330 skeletons, and the presence of considerable quantities of disarticulated bone was also recorded (but not analysed). The ratio of women to men is almost 1:1 and there is a notably high proportion of juvenile burials, with a degree of unusual care evidenced in a number of well-made cists adjacent to the south side of the church. Burial appears to have begun in the twelfth century, which may also be associated with the transfer of the church to Coldstream Priory; there were no graves within the church. Grave goods included scallop shells and a folded coin, both of which are found widely at contemporary sites throughout Britain. The burials seem overall to have been those of the labouring population on the estate, although the grave goods suggest some higher-status burials were present, as do the anthropomorphic stone coffin and simple, cross-incised slabs associated with the site (all found ex situ).

The Hirsel excavations have revealed a microcosm of the history of small churches in the High Middle Ages. It is particularly interesting that there should be so many parallels with the ninth- to twelfth-century small church and cemetery excavated at Raunds Furnells, Northamptonshire, over 400km to the south. It is evident that, despite its small size, comparative remoteness and lack of investment, the Hirsel was deeply embedded in the broader cultural, political and religious developments of the period.