Mailros : Old Melrose
Melrose stands at the heart of the Scottish Borders in the valley of the River Tweed. Firmly situated in an area known as the ‘Scott Country’ from its association with the writer Sir Walter Scott, the countryside surrounding this historic abbey town is particularly pleasing.
Melrose and the surrounding area are part of Scotland in the Scottish Borders county region but as with our other pages covering the Scottish Borders we will use the old county names of Roxburghshire, Berwickshire and Selkirkshire for historical context. Historically, Melrose is a Roxburghshire town.
The town of Melrose is situated between Eildon Hill, that overlooks the town to its immediate south and the River Tweed to its north. By road, Melrose is about fourteen miles west of Kelso and the same distance north-west of Jedburgh.
However, the town of Melrose we see today is not the site of the original Melrose. The original Melrose was located on another beautiful spot called Old Melrose (or Old Mailros) that is situated within a meander of the River Tweed about three miles east of the present town. Its name is thought to derive from the Brythonic meaning ‘bare peninsula’ or perhaps ‘bare moor’.
The site of Old Melrose can be viewed from the famous ‘Scotts View’ on the edge of Bemersyde Hill (Bemersyde meaning beautiful hill). Here there is indeed a beautiful view of the site with the three distinct peaks of Eildon Hill in the near distance forming a backdrop.
It was at Old Melrose in the Anglo-Saxon era that a Northumbrian monastery (Melrose was then in Northumbria) was founded by monks from Iona and Lindisfarne, sometime before AD 650. This was during the time of St Aidan, who came from the Scottish island of Iona. Aidan, the first Bishop of Lindisfarne, was a Gaelic speaking Irishman, who became bishop in AD 635 and followed the Irish tradition of Christianity. He was a close friend of the Northumbrian king, Oswald, who had spent time in exile on Iona during the reign of the preceding king, Edwin.
In AD 651, Aidan died and his passing was witnessed in a miracle vision by Cuthbert, a local shepherd boy working in the Lammermuir hills, possibly in Lauderdale to the north of Melrose. The story suggests Cuthbert had a humble background but although he seems to have been of humble character, he was probably of noble birth.
Inspired by this vision, St Cuthbert, as he would become, made the decision to enter Melrose monastery as a monk, where he was welcomed by the Melrose prior, St Boisil and the Melrose abbot, Eata. Around AD 656 a monastery was founded at Ripon by the Melrose monks under Eata’s leadership. St Cuthbert left to become a monk at Ripon for a time, working as the monastery’s guest master. However, Eata was expelled from Ripon monastery in the 660s by the Northumbrian king and returned north with Cuthbert.
Later, when Eata became a bishop, Eata was succeeded as Abbot of Melrose by St Boisil and following St Boisil’s death in 661, St Cuthbert became prior at Melrose.
Another monk of a later era associated with Old Melrose was a man called Drythelm who died (briefly) in AD 700, before he seemingly came back to life after a few hours, following an illness. He was able to give an account of hell, heaven and purgatory following his experience. This persuaded him to enter Melrose monastery as a monk. Dyrthelm came from ‘Incunenigum’, an outlying part of what was then the Kingdom of Northumbria, identified as Cunningham in Ayrshire.
In later times Old Melrose monastery suffered decline, most notably after a raid by the king of Scotland (Alba), Kenneth McAlpin in AD 839. The monastery seems to have been abandoned well before the Norman era. Virtually nothing can seen of the old monastery today, although a ditch or earthwork ‘vallum’ across the neck of the Old Melrose peninsula or meander of the Tweed, once marked the monastery boundary.
The monastery of Old Melrose had probably been long-abandoned, by the time Alfred Westou, the sacrist and relic collector of Durham came this way in 1020 and removed the remains of St Boisil to have them reinterred at Durham. Alfred was already the guardian of the relics and remains of St Cuthbert at Durham.
Old Melrose was still a deserted monastery in 1173 when Aldwin of Jarrow unsuccessfully tried to revive it. Shortly afterward a chapel dedicated to St Cuthbert was built here that remained a property of the church of Durham until the 1130s, but no traces can be seen today, other than a mound.
Melrose Abbey
In the twelfth century, David I of Scotland, who oversaw the establishment of several great abbeys in the Borders, desired to re-establish old Melrose monastery at its original site. Cistercian monks came north from Rievaulx in North Yorkshire at David’s invitation but chose a new site for Melrose Abbey, to the west. They considered this better land for their needs and agricultural development.
It is the ruins of the Cistercian monastery of Melrose Abbey that we see in Melrose today. Founded in 1136 and dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, it was the first Cistercian monastery in Scotland. The present town of Melrose developed nearby to serve the new establishment and prospered from trade linked to the wealth and success of the monastery.
Like its predecessor at Old Melrose, the new monastery had an impressive setting but was now situated even closer to the peaks of Eildon Hill – two of the three peaks of this hill being visible from the town of Melrose. The new abbey, like others founded by King David in the Scottish Borders, became a great centre for wealth and learning, owning vast swathes of agricultural land managed as a highly organised business.
The first abbot of David’s new monastery was called Richard and the second was Waltheof, known as St Waltheof of Melrose. Waltheof had previously been a canon at the Augustinian priory of Nostell near Wakefield in Yorkshire and had also been prior of another Augustinian monastery, at Kirkham between Malton and York, again in Yorkshire. Later still he became a Cistercian monk first at a monastery in Bedfordshire and then at Rievaulx before his appointment as Abbot of Melrose in 1148 where he served as abbot up until his death in 1159.
Waltheof was a stepson of King David, as his mother was Maud, Countess of Huntingdon, who later married King David to become Queen of Scotland. Through his mother, Waltheof was the grandson of Waltheof, the Earl of Northumbria executed by King William the Conqueror in 1075. St Waltheof of Melrose was also the great grandson of Siward, the famous Anglo-Danish Earl of Northumbria.
Waltheof was buried at Melrose Abbey in 1159 and a cult of sainthood developed around him after his death that his successor, Abbot William, tried to suppress despite its potential to attract pilgrims and wealth to Melrose. William’s successor, Jocelin, who became the fourth Abbot of Melrose in 1170 (and later Bishop of Glasgow) encouraged this cult.
There were a succession of around forty abbots at Melrose from its foundation in 1136 up to 1541. They were followed after 1451 by a succession of four ‘Commendators’ up to 1620, who held a jurisdiction over the revenue and management of the former monastery without holding the title of abbot. The former Commendators’ House which dates from the 1500s can still be seen at Melrose Abbey within the ruins of the monastic cloisters and serves as a museum.
Several of the Melrose abbots seem to have been local men from the Scottish Borders, judging from their names. Abbots included a John de Edrom in the 1260s; a Patrick De Selkirk in the 1270s; William de Fogo in the 1310s and 1120s; Gilbert de Roxburgh in the 1390s and Robert Blackadder in the 1470s. All of these ‘proto-surnames’ derive from locations in the Scottish Borders.
In addition to St Waltheof, notable people buried at Melrose Abbey included Alexander II, King of Scotland (1214-1249); William, the 1st Earl of Douglas known as ‘the Black Douglas’ (1323-1384) and the 8th and 9th Duke of Buccleuch. The heart of Robert the Bruce (King Robert I of Scotland) is also buried here, as it was a dying wish of that king to have his heart taken on a crusade and then buried at Melrose forever. In 1921, a lead cylinder was found at the abbey containing a medieval casket with a heart inside that is thought to have been that of King Robert.
Over the centuries Melrose Abbey has suffered considerably from border raiding, being attacked by the forces of English kings, Edward I in 1300 and 1307; Edward II in 1322 and by Richard II in 1385, after which the abbey church needed extensive rebuilding. It was also raided by Henry VIII’s forces in 1544 and came under cannon fire by Oliver Cromwell’s troops in the seventeenth century.
In 1618 part of the abbey church came to be used as the parish church for Melrose but a purpose-built kirk was erected in 1810 owing to the ruinous condition of the abbey church. The abbey was extensively restored at the instigation of the poet and novelist, Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) with financial support from the Duke of Buccleuch. What remains of Melrose Abbey is quite beautiful, including intricately detailed sculptured carvings in the abbey’s exterior that include a pig playing the bagpipes.
Melrose
Melrose is a pretty little town with the superb backdrop of the Eildon Hills and the beautiful, venerable edifice of Melrose Abbey adding to its charms.
Centred on the Market Square, the main streets in the old centre of Melrose are High Street, Buccleuch Street and Abbey Street along with a little street called East Port from where there was once a gateway into the town.
At the centre of the Market Square is Melrose mercat cross (market cross) which bears the date ‘1645’ and the initials of John Earl of Haddington, who was a Superior of the Burgh of Melrose. The cross, topped by a carved unicorn holding a shield, is very much a structure of restoration and replacement and the base of the cross dates from the nineteenth century. The original Melrose cross was historically situated near the abbey precinct along neighbouring Abbey Street.
Overlooking the mercat cross is the former Melrose Corn Exchange of 1862 designed by the Edinburgh architect David Cousin in Scottish Jacobean style. Next door is the Ormiston Institute which houses the Trimontium Museum on its upper floor.
The Ormiston Institute was built in 1882 at the bequest of Charles Walker Ormiston. Outside, is an impressive clock that was presented as a memorial to a Melrose physician and surgeon called John Meikle (died 1892) by his ‘grateful patients’.
A prominent feature in the Market Square is a tall red sandstone building of 1897 that is home to Melrose’s Bank of Scotland. It was designed by George Washington Browne. To the left of the bank is the Town House Hotel with a plaque commemorating Catherine Helen Spence, an Australian journalist and suffragist.
Born in Melrose, Spence grew up in this house. The plaque reads: ‘Catherine Helen Spence, 1825-1910, Australian social and political reformer, writer and preacher, who worked for children, lived here between 1825 and 1839.
There are two particularly lovely gardens in Melrose which are both close to the abbey. One is the Priorwood Gardens (Scottish National Trust) situated off Abbey Street. Priorwood was home to the prominent Scottish Roman archaeologists James Curie (1862-1944) and Alexander Ormiston Curie (1866-1955).
Another notable garden on the opposite side of Abbey Street but a little further to the north, are the Harmony Gardens of Harmony House, that also belong to the Scottish National Trust. Harmony House itself is not open to the public. The house was built in 1807 by a Melrose resident, Robert Waugh, who was a Jamaican plantation and slave owner. Harmony House was the name of his Caribbean plantation house.
Melrose parish church is situated beyond the western end of High Street off St Mary’s Road and dates from 1911. It was erected after the earlier church of 1808 burned down in 1908. The new church, by J.M Peddie incorporated the octagonal spire of the previous church.
Footpaths near the church lead north to the Tweed riverside and along the river east to the Gattonside Suspension Bridge of 1826 (repaired 1991) which links Melrose to Gattonside on the north side of the Tweed. It is similar to the Union Chain Bridge much further downstream which links Scotland to Northumberland near Horncliffe and Paxton House.
If we now head south out of the centre of Melrose, Dingleton Road extends the town southward under and beyond the A6091 into the neighbouring settlement of Dingleton, where we find Melrose Golf Club nestling beneath Eildon Hill. Hereabouts the A6091 follows the course of what was once the North British Railway Edinburgh and Carlisle Branch.
The Old Melrose railway station of 1849 in Palma Place is now a restaurant and the station’s neighbouring north platform, complete with its overhanging canopy, is preserved as a quite charming feature alongside the A6091. The railway station closed to passengers in 1964 and then closed to goods in 1969.
To the east of Melrose is Newstead, an attractive village of stone houses that is said to be the oldest village in Scotland. It stands near the site of the Roman fort of Trimontium.
Eildon Hill and Trimontium
Eildon Hill is a stunning and beautiful focal point for much of the Borders region around Melrose and can be seen for miles around, standing high above the surrounding landscape.
Known as Eildon Hill (pronounced ‘eel-don’) or pluralised as the ‘Eildon Hills’ it is really one hill with three peaks. Mid Hill is the highest of the three Eildon peaks at 1,385 feet (422 metres) and its neighbours are North Hill and Wester Hill. It has sometimes been called ‘The Three Sisters’.
Ramparts and traces of an Iron Age hill fort – one of the largest in Scotland – can be seen on the top of North Hill and are thought to have been the one-time ‘oppidum’ or capital of the tribe called the Selgovae. This would draw a comparison with the equally distinctive hill of Traprain Law near Haddington in Lothian which is thought to have been the capital of the Votadini tribe.
By the Roman era, the Eildon Hill fort seems to have been abandoned but the North Hill was utilised by the Romans who established a signal station there.
Overlooked by the Eildons just to the east of Melrose on the south bank of the Tweed near Newstead was a much more significant remnant of Roman times. Here was the Roman fort of Trimontium established around AD 79, with a name that literally means ‘three mountains’.
It is the biggest Roman complex in what is now Scotland but nothing can be seen of Trimontium today. However, its outline and features are revealed by crop marks that can be seen in aerial photographs. The Roman road called Dere Street passed through here and crossed the River Tweed by a bridge at an unidentified location nearby.
During the four centuries of Roman rule there were occasions when the fort was abandoned and then reoccupied. When the short-lived Antonine Wall (commenced in AD 142) was built between the Clyde and Forth isthmus, Trimontium served as a major supply base for the new northern frontier.
The Trimontium Museum in Melrose is dedicated to the area’s Roman history. Just downstream from the Trimontium site is the beautiful but disused Leaderfoot railway viaduct of nineteen arches which crosses the Tweed here.
The viaduct was built in 1863 and linked Duns and Greenlaw in Berwickshire to St Boswells in Roxburghshire, just south of the viaduct. The line was a branch of the Berwickshire Railway that linked Berwick to Edinburgh, but the viaduct ceased to carry locomotives in 1965.
Alongside the viaduct is an old road bridge called Drygrange Old Bridge, built of sandstone in 1780, on the site of an earlier ferry. It is possible that Dere Street crossed the Tweed somewhere in this vicinity.
The old bridge carried the A68 across the Tweed until 1974 but the road now crosses the river by the present road bridge (built 1971-1973), immediately to its east. The Leader Water which forms the valley of Lauderdale, joins the River Tweed on the river’s north side, immediately east of the new bridge.
Eildon Hill overlooks the town of Melrose at close quarters but in Melrose only the North and Mid Hill can be seen as the orientation of the peaks mean that the South Hill is hidden by the Mid Hill at Melrose.
The rock that forms Eildon Hill is igneous (often referred to as ‘volcanic’) and it does have the appearance of a volcano but the 350 million year old peaks of Eildon Hill are not in fact a volcano but are formed by a sill of molten rock called ‘magma’ that has pushed its way up between layers of sedimentary rock and solidified. Over time, ice and water have weathered the softer rocks of the surrounding landscape leaving the exposed igneous hills.
Being such prominent landmarks, the peaks of Eildon naturally attracted their share of legendary associations. One story claims that a wizard called Michael Scott split the hill into its three parts by some means of magic.
In another story the hill is said to be hollow. This legend concerns a horse-dealer called Thomas the Rhymer who is guided into the hill by a mysterious man who reveals King Arthur and his knights cast under a spell in a deep and seemingly permanent slumber.
Presented with a horn and a sword, Thomas blew the horn instead of choosing the sword as the men begin to wake. Sadly, Thomas is then mysteriously sprung, as if in a dream, to find himself outside the hill once more, never to see Arthur and his men again. This is a variation of a legend that also has an association with Sewingshields Crags on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland.
Leader Water and Lauderdale
The Leader Water which forms the valley of Lauderdale joins the Tweed at Leader Foot near the Leaderfoot Viaduct. For part of its course this valley formed a boundary between Roxburghshire on its west side and a small westerly portion of Berwickshire on its east side. Here we will cover both sides of the river. In its upper reaches Lauderdale was entirely Berwickshire.
On the east bank, half a mile north of Leader Foot is the village of Redpath and a further mile and a half upstream is Earlston, also on the eastern bank. One of the earliest forms of the name Earlston was ‘Erchledune’ and is thought to mean ‘hill belonging to Arkill’ but was later interpreted as Earlston, possibly from association with the Earls of March and Dunbar.
In legend, Earlston was said to be the fourteenth century home of the Scottish supernatural ‘seer’, Thomas the Rhymer (Thomas the Rhymer of Ercildoun) who had formed a friendship with the Queen of Elfland through whom he acquired his powers of foreseeing future events. During the Scottish witch trials of the seventeenth century, witches are said to have been in communication with him.
From Earlston we could leave the valley and head east, deeper into Berwickshire where we find the village of Gordon, from which the Gordon clan ultimately take their name. It is also worth heading five miles south east of Earlston towards Kelso to take in the nearby Mellerstain House (in Berwickshire) and Smailholm Tower (in Roxburghshire).
Further up Lauderdale, seven miles north of Earlston is Lauder, a former Royal Burgh and once a walled town named from the Leader Water river that gives its name to Lauderdale. It has a church of 1673 and a quaint town hall in the High Street. The church superseded an earlier one that stood near Thirlestane Castle on the eastern side of the town.
Thirlestane Castle is a beautiful sixteenth century building in stately grounds on the eastern edge of Lauder. It was commenced for Sir John Maitland whose family roots were in Northumberland. Maitland acquired an earlier castle from the Cranstoun family in 1587.
The conversion and creation we see today was by the architect, Sir William Bruce in the 1670s for John Maitland, First Duke and Second Earl of Lauderdale (1616-1682), who was Secretary of State for Scotland. It is still under Maitland family ownership.
Thirlestane means ‘stone with a hole’, a name of either Anglo-Saxon or Scots language origin. What exactly this lost stone was or where it was located is not known. Another intriguing name, across the Leader Water east of Thirlestane is Edgarhope Wood and Forest. ‘Edgar Hope’ means Edgar’s valley. The tenth century English king, Edgar is said to have come hunting here, but it could also be associated with the eleventh century Scottish king of that name.
William Wallace monument
Heading back down the Leader Water to the Tweed at Leaderfoot, we can now follow a particularly beautiful stretch of the River Tweed that twists southward in a series of elegant meanders for around three miles before heading east to Kelso. This stretch of the Tweed with the neighbouring Eildon Hills as a backdrop, includes the famous Scotts’ View of Eildon Hill and a little further to the south heading towards Dryburgh Abbey stands a huge statue of William Wallace high above the valley.
Further south, within a meander of the river but also on the east side of the Tweed are the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey and further south still are Clintmains and Mertoun where the bridge across the Tweed offers more great views as the Tweed heads east to Makerstoun and Kelso.
As with the lower part of the Lauder valley, places on the east side of this stretch of the River Tweed were historically in Berwickshire as this short section of the river formed the Berwickshire – Roxburghshire boundary. However, further east the Roxburghshire border was somewhat wayward, departing from the course of the Tweed near Makerstoun to take in areas of land north of Kelso.
Seeing Scotts View above Old Mailros is a must for any visitor but great views can also be found at the Wallace statue to the south. The red sandstone statue of William Wallace, Guardian of the Kingdom of Scotland (1297-98) and subject of the 1995 American movie Braveheart is impressive.
Built in 1814, it is 31 feet high and constructed at the instigation of the Scottish antiquarian, David Erskine, who was the 11th Earl of Buchan. Nearby is a funeral urn sculpture with the words ‘Sacred to the memory of Wallace’.
Dryburgh Abbey
Dryburgh less than half a mile south of the Wallace statue is perhaps named from an original fortified site or burgh above the wet meadows of the Tweed. The village is small with features including a gazebo monument called the Temple of the Muses that commemorates a poet called James Thomson of Ednam (1700-1748). It was built for David Erskine, the 11th Earl of Buchan.
There is also a suspension bridge (a footbridge) across the Tweed dating from 1872 and nearby is the Dryburgh Abbey Hotel of 1845 that was once Dryburgh House, the home to a Lady Griselle Baillie (1822-1891) of the Mellerstain-based family.
Dryburgh Abbey itself is situated near the hotel in this quiet nook of the River Tweed. Established in 1150, the abbey was a Premonstratensian establishment of canons who were invited here by the Lord of Lauderdale, Hugh de Moreville, Constable of Scotland. The canons were settled here from Alnwick Abbey in Northumberland.
Like other monasteries in the Borders, Dryburgh suffered from raids and attacks, though it was not as wealthy as Melrose, Jedburgh and Kelso. One story says that English soldiers burnt it in 1322 after the canons rung the abbey bells as the English retreated, but this sort of tale is probably apocryphal and is certainly not unique to Dryburgh. In the end, as with the other Border abbeys, Dryburgh fell victim to the Scottish Protestant reformation in the sixteenth century.
In the eighteenth century the abbey ruins were purchased by David Erskine, the 11th Earl of Buchan, for whom was built Dryburgh Abbey House, just to the south of the abbey. This house should not to be confused with what is now Dryburgh Abbey Hotel to the north of the abbey.
Dryburgh Abbey is the burial place of Erskine who died in 1829 as well as being the place of burial for Field-Marshall Earl Haig (died 1928). Most famously, the abbey is of course the place of burial for Sir Walter Scott, who died in 1832.
St Boswells
A little further downstream from Dryburgh on the same side of the river, near the neck of another meander is Mertoun House, home to the Duke of Sutherland, which dates from 1703. It is a private home but the gardens are open to the public. Earlier owners have included the Halliburtons and the Scotts of Harden. From nearby Clintmains, Mertoun Bridge crosses the Tweed towards the village of St Boswells.
Named from St Boisil, the abbot of Old Melrose Abbey in the time of St Cuthbert, the village of St Boswells was historically called Lessudden, a name that is still recalled in Lessudden House, just east of the village. St Boswells’ is the home to an annual fair held each July.
Attractive houses, many of pinkish stone, line the main street of the village which is called ‘Main Street’. Near the west end is the village hall and the old Free Church of 1844 which is now St Boswells’ parish church. The Buccleuch Arms, also of pink stone faces the western end of the Main Street from across the A68.
Despite its name, the nearby town of Newtown St Boswells on the Bowden Burn to the north of St Boswells is a village that is at least five-hundred years old. Historically called ‘Newtowne’, it is the council headquarters for the Scottish Borders Council and was previously an administrative centre for Roxburghshire council. The 1960s council headquarters building is just off Bowden Road.
Just north of Newtown St Boswells is Eildon, a little village with prominent hedgerows. Eildon Hall at the foot of Eildon Hill, to the west of Eildon, is one of the homes of the Duke of Buccleuch and dates from 1802. Six miles to the west along the A699 from St Boswells and Newtown is the town of Selkirk.
Instead of heading to Selkirk, we can circle the Eildon Hills to the west of Newton St Boswells, following the B6398 west then north. After passing through the village of Bowden on the Bowden Burn we turn north around the western flank of the Eildons to Dingleton and back into Melrose.
Darnick to Galashiels
Heading slightly upstream along the Tweed valley to the west of Melrose towards Galashiels is Darnick, a village with lots of pleasing stone houses, particularly in the Smiths Road area. Darnick is thought to mean ‘hidden place’ and is home to Darnick Tower, an impressive three-storey tower house dating in part to the sixteenth century. It was home to the Heiton family from 1425 to 2017, when the tower was sold.
Upstream, a mile west of Darnick, the Tweed is joined on its western bank by Gala Water which here plays host to the town of Galashiels (also known as ‘Gala’ for short). Galashiels is an old town but grew significantly in the nineteenth century as a textile manufacturing centre. In recent times Galashiels has become a centre for out-of-town retail developments serving the Borders area.
Historically, Galashiels was mostly in the county of Selkirkshire but close to the border with Roxburghshire. Old features of the town include Old Gala House, a tower house dating partly to the 1450s and historically a home to the Pringle border clan. Slightly to the north, just off the High Street in the centre of the town is a gallery housing the ‘Great Tapestry of Scotland’, a 49 feet long community project tapestry telling the story of Scotland.
Like Hawick and Jedburgh, Galashiels is noted for its own unique kind of sweet. These are ‘Soor Plums’ (sour plums) which are green-coloured boiled sweets derived from the town’s motto. This is said to commemorate the slaughter, in 1337, of a group of English foragers (in both the military and vegetative sense of the word) who were caught, somewhat distracted, by a party of Scots, while picking wild plums somewhere near the edge of the town.
Gala Water is a river that begins about fourteen miles north of Galashiels in the Moorfoot Hills where it is fed by Heriot Water to the west. The only significant village along the Gala Water valley is Stow, half way along its course. About a mile north of the Gala’s source is Tyne Head where another river, the Tyne Water begins. Known in its lower parts as the River Tyne, this Scottish river eventually enters the North Sea to the north of Dunbar.
Abbotsford to Tweeddale
Leaving Galashiels and heading back across to the Melrose side of the River Tweed we find one of Scotland’s most famous attractions, the grand historic house of Abbotsford. Situated about two miles west of Melrose above the Tweed, Abbotsford was of course the home of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832).
Though famous for his epic writing that encapsulated the legends, stories and romance of the Scottish Borders, Scott was also a man of legal matters. He was the Sheriff-Depute of Selkirkshire and chose a site for his home that was within easy reach of the town of Selkirk and its courtroom. Selkirk is only three miles to the south.
The land overlooking the Tweed which Scott purchased in 1811 was called Newarthaugh and the site of a farm known to locals as ‘Clarty Hole’ in what seemed to them a muddy, unappealing location but Scott saw its potential. Historically, it had been the site of a ford across the Tweed used by the Melrose monks, so Scott renamed it Abbotsford.
Scott developed the site through his own imagination, investing earnings from his increasingly popular written works; taking advice from friends as well as employing architects such as Edward Blore and most notably William Atkinson. A local builder called John Smith of Darnick was employed to carry out the work.
Trimmed with lots of castle-like medieval features, Abbotsford is a grand and spectacular house, both inside and out, with its beautiful gardens laid out partly to Scott’s designs. Completed in 1826, it has been open to the pubic since 1833 and was in possession of Sir Walter’s Scott descendants until 2004. Cared for by the Abbotsford Trust, the site includes an extensive visitor centre near the entrance to the estate.
Following the River Tweed upstream two miles south of Abbotsford, the valley splits into two at a location called Sunderland. Here the Tweed itself heads upstream to the west into Tweeddale while from the south the river is joined by Ettrick Water coming up from Selkirk. We will leave the details of Tweeddale for another day but here we will briefly mention places along its course from east to west.
First we encounter the village of Clovenfords, an old mail coach stop in a side valley of the Tweed called Caddon Water, just west of Galashiels. Five and a half miles further up the Tweed to the west is the village of Walkerburn and then just a mile up the valley to its west is Innerleithen where the Leithen Water joins the Tweed on the north bank. Walkerburn and Innerleithen were both historically in Peeblesshire and both have a history of textile making. Innerleithen is said to have been founded by an Irish monk called St Ronan in AD 737.
The main attraction of Innerleithen is the grand white-painted castle-like mansion of Traquair House across the Tweed to the south. It is said to be the oldest continually inhabited house in Scotland. Five miles upstream, along the Tweed from Innerleithen, is the town of Peebles, a name derived from the pebbles of the river. Less than a mile west of Peebles is the impressive tower house of Neidpath Castle, partly dating to the thirteenth century and historically connected with the Fraser and Hay families.
Upstream from Peebles the Tweed can be traced into the Lowther Hills north west of Moffat close to the historic borders of Peeblesshire, Dumfriesshire and Lanarkshire, where the Tweed’s beginnings lie remarkably close to those of the River Clyde.
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