Towns and Villages...
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A selection of other towns and villages in the Scottish Borders:
Coldstream | Duns | Eyemouth | Galashiels | Greenlaw | Hawick | Innerleithen | Kelso | Lauder | Melrose | Peebles | St Abbs | Selkirk
Coldstream - Located on the River Tweed in the old county of Berwickshire, 14 miles (22 km) south-west of Berwick-upon-Tweed, Coldstream is a small town with a strong military past, particularly through its association with the Coldstream Guards and as a crossing point on the Tweed. The name Coldstream may come from its Roman connections when it was referred to as Castrum (Latin for 'fort'), and a Roman camp can be found nearby at Belchester near Leitholm.
Both the English and Scots forded here several times during the centuries of conflict between the two nations, led by Edward I (1296), Robert the Bruce, James IV (1513), Montrose (1640), and General Monck (1660). Monck established the headquarters of his regiment here in 1659, though it was raised at Berwick-upon-Tweed. On 1st January 1660, the force set out for London on its famous march, resulting in the restoration of Charles II. Only in 1670, after the death of Monck, was the regiment named after the starting point of the march.
The Coldstream Museum highlights the history of the regiment and is located on the site of the original headquarters.
Duns - Located 15 miles (24 km) west of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in the old county of Berwickshire, Duns is a small market town and a former county town, serving the agricultural area of the Merse; it was called Dunse until 1882. The town was originally built on the 217m (713-feet) dun (Iron Age fort) north of the present-day site, but was destroyed by the English in 1545. It was rebuilt almost 50 years later at the foot of the hill, protected by swamp on three sides.
Duns Castle also includes part of a 14th-century tower constructed by Randolph Earl of Moray and rebuilt in 1820; the grounds now form a park with a bird sanctuary. On Duns Law stands the Covenanters' Stone commemorating the encampment of General Sir Alexander Leslie and the Covenanting army in 1639 as they prepared to oppose Charles I in Berwick.
Duns is also the most likely birthplace of John Duns Scotus (c.1265-1308), known as the Subtle Doctor, and one of Europe's great philosophers. A bust of him stands in the public park while a cairn is at his reputed birthplace of Pavilion Lodge, Duns Castle. Other prominent men born in the area include the motor racing champion, Jim Clark (d. 1968) whose Memorial Room includes his trophies; also born in Duns was the theologian Thomas Boston (1676-1732), and the astronomer Abraham Robertson (1751-1826).
Eyemouth
Situated at the mouth of the River Eye 8 miles (13 km) north of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in the old county of Berwickshire, this large fishing and holiday resort town on the Berwickshire coast became a burgh of barony in 1597 and was the port for Coldingham Priory. The town prospered through the 19th-century herring trade and the railway, now gone. Its narrow and intersecting alleys are said to have given smugglers a good chance of slipping past customs men in the 18th and 19th centuries. The harbour (1768) was extended in the late 19th century and deepened in 1964, providing shelter for one of Scotland's mid-sized fleets (126 vessels in 1997). In 1881 disaster hit Eyemouth when a gale sank half its fleet, leaving 129 drowned.
Galashiels
Galashiels a small town located 28 miles (45 km) south-east of Edinburgh and 5 miles (8 km) north of Selkirk, in the old county of Selkirkshire on the Gala Water. The name derives from the huts (shiels) on the river used by pilgrims on their way to Melrose. Galashiels developed primarily as a manufacturing town for tweeds and other woollens, electrical industries making an appearance in recent years. Water power was used for cloth production from 1622 and the Weavers' Corporation was created in 1666, meeting until 1847. In 1777, the Manufacturers' Corporation was created and still meets today.
The industry developed quickly after the invention of a carding machine in 1790 but depended on shifts in fashion, the export market and foreign competition. By the 1930s the textile industry was in marked decline. In 1909, the Scottish Woollen Technical College was founded and this developed into the Scottish College of Textiles becoming part of Heriot-Watt University in 1998. Visitors are welcome at the Peter Anderson Woollen Mill to view its manufacturing of tweeds and tartans, and to enjoy its museum of local, industrial and social history.
The town was granted a charter in 1599, an event celebrated in early summer with the 'Braw Lads' Gathering'. The town arms show a fox attempting to reach plums on a tree, with the motto 'Sour Plums', commemorating the story of a group of English soldiers killed in 1337, having been caught picking plums.
Galashiels' architecture includes the residence of the lairds of Gala, Old Gala House (1583), and the town possesses a fine equestrian statue in the 'Border Reiver' by Thomas Clapperton (1879-1962), a Gala native.
Greenlaw
Located 7 miles (11 km) south-west of Duns and 12 miles (19 km) north-west of Coldstream, on the Blackadder Water, Greenlaw was built in the late 17th century and functioned as the county town of Berwickshire for 207 years until 1903, a title it shared with Duns after 1853. Its Market Cross (1696) and Kirk (1675) are its oldest structures though the cross was removed for most of the 19th century and is now west of the Kirk. The last public hanging in Scotland took place at Greenlaw Kirk in 1834.
Hume Castle (13th century), 3 miles (5 km) south of Greenlaw, was the seat of the Home family; destroyed in the 17th century, it was restored in the late 18th.
Hawick
This small town is located on the River Teviot 12 miles (19 km) south of Selkirk and 21 miles (34 km) south-west of Kelso in the old county of Roxburghshire. Hawick is one of Scotland's leading textile centres, famous for its knitwear and hosiery. It has a long tradition of civic independence, reinforced by the burgh's Common Riding in June, the largest of its kind in the Borders.
A month of celebrations marks the events of 1514 when a group of youths (callants) defeated an English force at Hornshole and captured their standard. The day of the Common Riding involves the inspection of the marches (boundaries) by mounted townsfolk.
Hawick has long been a centre for textiles, with hand knitting preceding the introduction of frame knitting in 1680 though this was fully commercialised only in 1771 by local magistrate John Hardie. By 1820, the area had about half of all Scottish frames and after mid-century the focus on stockings shifted to woollen underwear and then, in this century, to women's knitwear.
Innerleithen
Innerleithen is a large village located 7 miles (11 km) east of Peebles and 11 miles (18 km) west of Galashiels, in the old county of Peeblesshire at the confluence of the River Tweed and Leithen Water. Innerleithen was an important woollen, spinning and knitwear centre and is most famous for its medicinal spring, made famous in Sir Walter Scott's novel, St. Ronan's Well (1823), and refurbished in 1826 to cope with visitors. Malcolm IV is thought to have given the church to the monks of Kelso in 1159 and to have included the right to sanctuary, allegedly in honour of a son who drowned in the river.
Robert Smail's Printing Works in Innerleithen (founded 1837) are also on display to the public. Innerleithen holds the annual Border Games which began in 1827 and include the 'Cleikum Ceremony' in which St Ronan drives out the devil.
Nearby stands Traquair House (10th c.), Scotland's oldest inhabited house, while the Scottish Museum of Wool Textiles is located at Walkerburn.
Kelso
Kelso is a small town located 19 miles (30 km) east of Selkirk and 10 miles (16 km) south-west of Coldstream, in the old county of Roxburghshire. It lies on the north bank of the River Tweed at its confluence with the River Teviot. Sir Walter Scott regarded Kelso as the 'prettiest, if not the most romantic village in Scotland'. Kelso was traditionally a market town for farmers and artisans, particularly shoemakers.
Kelso Abbey (1128) was founded by monks from Tiron, France, and became the wealthiest of the Border Abbeys. James III was crowned here as an infant. Both town and abbey were burned in 1523, 1542 and finally in 1545 by the Earl of Hertford. The town, but not the abbey, recovered and was rebuilt by the late 16th C.
Kelso's market and its position on the Tweed made it an important Borders centre as did two bridges built in 1754 and 1800-3. Cattle were traded here until the 1930s and there is an annual ram market in September and the Border Union Agricultural Society Show in July. Today it is a centre for plastics, electronics, soft drinks and agricultural machinery, tourism and fishing. The Georgian Square holds the Italianate Town Hall (1816), while other notable buildings include Ednam House (1761), now a hotel; the octagonal parish church (1771-3); and the Corn Exchange (1855), complete with a musicians' gallery.
Sir Walter Scott studied here as a child for 6 months while two fellow scholars included his later publishers, James and John Ballantyne.
Just to the north-west of the town stands Floors Castle, designed by William Adam and Sir John Vanbrugh (1718) for the Duke of Roxburgh, and extended c.1839 by William Playfair. The castle includes a large collection of art and paintings. James II was killed on this estate when a cannon exploded during his inspection of the siege of Roxburgh in 1460.
Lauder
This small village is located 22 miles (35 km) south of Edinburgh, in the old county of Berwickshire on the Leader Water. A Royal Burgh (1502), Lauder was the site of the 1482 hanging of six favourites of James III by Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus ('Bell-the-Cat'). Its church (1673) is shaped like a Greek cross and was built by Sir William Bruce for the Duke of Lauderdale. The 18th-century Town Hall included the prison until 1843.
North-east of Lauder stands the red sandstone Thirlestane Castle (c.1590), seat of the Earls of Lauderdale and superbly decorated with a large art collection.
Melrose
This large village is located 3 miles (5 km) south-east of Galashiels, 37 miles (60 km) south-east of Edinburgh, in the old county of Roxburghshire. St Aidan founded a monastery here in the 7th century and was succeeded by St Boswell and then St Cuthbert yet it was probably empty by the 11th century.
The present abbey (1136) was built by David I who brought in monks from Rievaulx near York. It was frequently and severely damaged in cross-border raids in 1322 and destroyed in 1385; rebuilt in the 15th century it was again damaged in 1544 and 1545 and repaired in 1822 with assistance from Sir Walter Scott and the Duke of Buccleuch. A later Duke gave it to 'the nation' in 1918. Alexander II is buried here and it is alleged that the heart of Robert the Bruce lies buried beneath the abbey's high altar.
Originally known as Fordel, Melrose produced linen until the late 18th century; it is now primarily a residential town. Notable buildings include Darnick Tower (1425) and the Commendator's House (15th century.); there is also a Mercat Cross (1642) and the nearby Abbotsford House (1817-24) built by Sir Walter Scott to an elaborate design. Melrose is also known as the place where the game of Rugby Sevens originated. Priorwood Garden (National Trust for Scotland) includes an orchard and gardens with flowers suitable for drying.
Peebles
This small town is located 23 miles (37 km) south of Edinburgh and 18 miles (29 km) west of Galashiels in the old county of Peeblesshire on the Eddleston Water (the Cuddy). One of Scotland's royal and ancient burghs, Peebles was a major centre for brewing (18th century) and wool production (19th and 20th centuries) while today it is a market town and holiday resort with fishing, golfing, tennis and pony-trekking. The Beltane Festival (Riding of the Marches) is held on the last Saturday of June. Peebles was formerly the headquarters for Tweeddale District Council (1975-96).
The castle which stood here was used as a royal residence and hunting lodge by Alexander III who also founded the Cross Kirk (1261), a Trinitarian Friary and the parish church (c.1569-1784). St Andrews Church (1195) was damaged in the wars with the English (1545) and the town was later burnt in an accidental fire in 1607. Cromwell's troops quartered here in 1656. Notable constructions include the red sandstone Peebles Hydropathic Hotel (1878-81) - popularly known as the 'Peebles Hydro'; the elaborate Chambers Institution (c.1859); the Mercat Cross (14th century); and the Tweed Bridge (15th century).
Born here were the publishers and brothers William and Robert Chambers (1800, 1802), and John Veitch (1829), philosopher, poet and historian; the explorer Mungo Park lived here for two years before leaving on his final trip to Africa; and visitors have included James I, James Hogg, Robert Louis Stevenson and John Buchan.
St Abbs
Located on the east coast of Scotland 3 miles (5 km) north-east of Eyemouth in the old county of Berwickshire, St Abbs is a pleasant fishing and holiday village, as well as a centre for underwater diving owing to its exceptionally clear waters. Nearby to the south is Coldingham beach and, to the N, St Abbs Head, a nature reserve with a large colony of seabirds.
A nunnery was founded here in the 7th century by St Ebba (or Ebbe), daughter of Ethelfred, and the lighthouse was built by Robert Louis Stevenson's father and uncle (c.1861). Also nearby is the 14th century chapel at Kirk Hill, and Renton House, an early Georgian mansion.
Fast Castle, 3 miles (5 km) north and 21m (70 feet) above sea level, was the meeting place of the Gowrie conspirators who plotted against James VI, and was written about as the keep of Wolf's Crag in Sir Walter Scott's novel The Bride of Lammermoor. The castle was destroyed in 1515 and rebuilt six years later; it had a drawbridge over a chasm 7.3m (24 feet) wide.
Selkirk
This small town is located 11 miles (18 km) north of Hawick and 19 miles (30 km) west of Kelso in the old county of Selkirkshire on the Ettrick Water. Selkirk was a medieval town when Prince David (later David I) erected an abbey in 1113, though the monks shifted to Kelso in 1128; a castle and hunting forest were established in the same century.
The town became a royal burgh in the 13th century and the Scottish Parliament met here in 1204. The people of Selkirk are known as Souters (shoemakers) acknowledging the town's former main industry. More recently the town was a centre for the manufacture of tweed and woollens, but this has been in sharp decline and light industries such as micro-electronics have become its mainstay. Selkirk's Common Riding is the second largest in the Borders.
Sir Walter Scott served as Sheriff here (1803-1832) and some items of his are on display at the Court House. The explorer Mungo Park was born nearby at Foulshiels (1771) and Robert Burns wrote his Epistle to Willie Creech here in 1787. There are statues to Scott and Park.
Notable buildings include The Haining (1794), a classical house on which grounds are the ruins of Selkirk Castle (on Peel Hill); Halliwell's House Museum; Bowhill (1708); and the Court House. A statue by Thomas Clapperton (1913) commemorates Selkirk's sole survivor at the Battle of Flodden (1513), after which the English destroyed the town. In 1645 the Covenanters under David Leslie carried out a massacre of Royalists under Montrose's command.
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