Selkirk

A river called the Ettrick Water joins the River Tweed about three miles to the south west of Melrose near a place called Sunderland Hall. A little over a mile to the south of its junction with the Tweed is the town of Selkirk, the historic county town of Selkirkshire that was the capital of the ancient royal hunting park of Ettrick Forest.

The name Selkirk combines the word ‘Kirk’ (a church) with an Anglo-Saxon word ‘sele’ that refers to a hall or manor house of some kind. Alternative views are that the first part of the name comes from ‘schelch’ an old word meaning ‘wood or wilderness’. Another suggestion is that the name may be even more ancient and somehow refers to the Selgovae tribe of Roman times.

In 1113 King David I invited monks of the Tironensian order from Tiron (Thiron Gardais) in France to establish an abbey at Selkirk but after only fifteen years the site was seen as unsuitable and the monastery was abandoned and relocated to Kelso. Because the monastery was so unsuccessful and short-lived, very little is known about it, including its actual location.

Despite the short life of the monastery, the medieval town of Selkirk developed nearby and was also the site of a castle. The castle at the heart of the Royal hunting park of Ettrick Forest is recalled in the name of Castle Street that heads south out of the centre of the town. This motte and bailey castle was situated at a place called The Haining on the south side of the town, to the north of neighbouring Haining Loch.

Selkirk’s Castle was mentioned at the time of the foundation of Selkirk Abbey. A wood and earthen structure, it seems to have fallen into ruin or disuse but was rebuilt by the English King, Edward I (1284-1327) who placed it under the control of Sir Alexander Balliol of Cavers who was declared ‘Warden of the Forest’ but it was re-taken by the Scots in 1302. Under Edward II, the English seized the castle once again but by the 1330s it was no longer mentioned and seems to have fallen into permanent disuse.

Peel Hill, the site of the castle on the north side of Haining Loch stands within the country estate of The Haining, a beautiful Georgian house of the 1790s in pleasant grounds. It is an historic home of the Pringle family.

Centred on its market place, the old streets of Selkirk town centre include High Street, West Port, South Port, Castle Street, Back Row, Kirk Wynd and the winding Forest Road to the north. West Port and South Port recall gateways that once protected the town.

At the heart of the Market Place is a statue of Sir Walter Scott who was the Sheriff for Selkirkshire as well as being a famous writer. The statue was the creation of Handyside Ritchie in 1839 and is on the site of Selkirk’s old tollbooth.

The old courtroom, where Sir Walter Scott worked was built in 1803 and is the nearby building with the tall spire. It replaced the earlier toll booth and would later become Selkirk’s Town Hall. It was used for the meetings of the burgh council up until 1974 and is now a museum focusing on Sir Walter Scott and other local notables.

Close to the Sir Walter Scott statue is the Pantwell, the historic source for the town’s water supply. Dating from 1898 it is a Victorian rebuilding of an earlier pant of 1728. Inscribed on the well are the names of local men who died in the Boer War. Pant refers to a trough below the drinking spot that catches the overflow of water.

Adjoining the market place at the western end is West Port where in a side road we find one of the town’s oldest houses, Halliwell’s House, now a museum featuring Selkirk’s history as well as a gallery.

Close to the West Port and Market Place junction, the market place is joined from the south by Kirk Wynd which leads south to Castle Street and South Port.

A short way along Kirk Wynd is one of Selkirk’s most interesting and atmospheric features, the ‘Auld Kirk’ which is the historic site of the ‘Kirk o the Forest.

Selkirk Kirk o'the Forest, William Wallace plaque — Selkirk, Kirk o’the Forest, William Wallace plaque © David Simpson

As a plaque near the entrance notes, this was the place where William Wallace was proclaimed ‘Guardian of Scotland’ in 1298. Wallace conducted guerrilla warfare from the wilderness of the neighbouring Ettrick Forest. The plaque also notes the site’s ancestral connections of the American President, Franklin D Roosevelt

Selkirk, Kirk o'the Forest — Selkirk, Kirk o’the Forest © David Simpson

The ruins that you can see at the site are of the ‘Auld Kirk’ which dated from 1747 and served as the parish church for Selkirk until the 1860s.

Aukd Kirk stands on the site of an earlier medieval church of the 1150s that was known as the ‘Kirk o the Forest’, from its central location in the royal hunting ground of Ettrick Forest.

Despite its medieval origins Selkirk really began to grow as a result of the textile industry, particularly in the nineteenth century when many mills clustered along the banks of the Ettrick Water.

A number of old and impressive, former textile mill buildings of charm and character can be seen on the west side of the town in the business park between the B7014 and the Ettrick Water. Also here is the modern Lochcarron visitor centre, a company noted for manufacture of Tartan. The B7014 more or less follows the course of an old mill race or mill lead, a channel of water linked to the Ettrick Water that powered the local mills.

However, the industry for which Selkirk was historically best-known was the making and mending of shoes. In Scots a shoemaker is a ‘Souter’ which is why ‘Souter’ is term for a person from Selkirk. This industry had long been established in the town, and notably Selkirk fulfilled an order for thousands of shoes for the army of Bonnie Prince Charlie during the 1745 rebellion. The last working shoe-maker in the town was recorded in 1975.

Ettrick and Yarrow

Leaving Selkirk behind we can follow Ettrick Water upstream for just over a mile where it is joined on its north side at Philiphaugh by the Yarrow Water. Philiphaugh was the site of a battle in September, 1645, in which the Royalist forces of James Graham, Marquess of Montrose were routed by the Covenanter army of Sir David Leslie.

From Philiphaugh, the twin dales of Ettrick Water and Yarrow Water stretch for several miles south-west deep into the wild hills that formed the ancient hunting park of Ettrick Forest encompassing much of Selkirkshire. Following the Yarrow Water two miles upstream from Philiphaugh we encounter an imposing ruined tower house called Newark Castle and nearby is Foulshiels, the birthplace of explorer Mungo Park (1771-1806) who was noted for his African expeditions.

A further four miles upstream to the south-west, we pass the hamlet of Yarrow and in another six miles reach the three mile-long St Mary’s Loch, the biggest natural loch in the Scottish Borders. It is immediately joined at its south west end by a smaller loch called Loch of the Lowes. Following the valley upstream, Yarrow Water fades to a trickle near the border with Dumfriesshire, where streams just to the south, including that of the Grey Mare’s Tail Waterfall feed the neighbouring Moffat Water as it heads south towards the town of Moffat.

Back at Philiphaugh if we follow the Ettrick Water upstream south-westard from its meeting with Yarrow Water, the first place we encounter is the tiny village of Ettrickbridge, four miles from the confluence with the Yarrow Water. In fact this village and the equally tiny village of Ettrick, a further nine miles up the valley, are the only settlements of any real significance in this dale as we head upstream to the river’s source at Graham’s Law near the Dumfriesshire border.

Just west of Ettrick is a monument to the poet and novelist, James Hogg (1770-1835) who was born on a farm near here and worked as a shepherd. Known as the ‘Ettrick Shepherd’, Hogg was a friend of Sir Walter Scott and like Scott, a great source of knowledge for the legends, history and folklore of the Scottish Borders.