GALASHIELS
This is the second largest town in the Scottish Borders, with a population of 12,367, according to the 2001 census. It is a major commercial centre in the region and the community is acknowledged for the quality of its textile manufacturing and is also the location of Heriot-Watt University’s School of Textiles and Design.
To the west of Galashiels, there is an ancient site, known as the Picts’ Work Ditch or Catrail, which extends many miles south. There is another ancient site in the north-west edge of the town, Torwoodlee, an Iron Age hill fort, which included a broch, which was built in the western quarter of the fort. However, the Romans destroyed this in AD 140, shortly after it had been completed. In 1599, Galashiels received its Burgh Charter, an event whose memory has been celebrated every summer since the 1930s by the ‘Braw Lads Gathering’, with riders on horseback parading through the town.
Robert Burns wrote two poems about Galashiels, ‘Sae Fair Her Hair’ and ‘Braw Lads’, while Sir Walter Scott built his famous home, Abbotsford, just across the River Tweed from the town. There remains some largely good-natured rivalry and banter between sections of the Galashiels townsfolk and those from the other Border communities, particularly their Hawick counterparts. The Galashiels citizens often refer to their fellow Borderers as ‘dirty Teris’, whilst the Hawick folk retort that Galashiels people are ‘pail merks’, supposedly because their town was the last to be plumbed into the main water system, and, as a consequence, residents had to rely on buckets for toilets!
In the east of the town, Netherdale is home to Gala RFC, and Gala Fairydean football club. The rugby organisation has produced a string of Scotland internationalists, including current star, Chris Paterson, who became the first man from his country to gain 100 test caps, against Wales in the 2010 Six Nations Championship. Other leading luminaries include the former British and Irish Lions duo, Gregor Townsend and Peter Dods, and the Maroons won the Scottish Cup when they defeated their Border opponents, Kelso, by 8-3 at Murrayfield in 1999. The former Scotland, Celtic and Hibs footballer, John Collins, was also born in the town
HAWICK
This is the largest town in the Borders, with a resident population of 14,801. A tributary of the River Teviot, the Slitrig Water, runs through the community, whose architecture is distinctive in that it features many sandstone buildings with slate roofs. The town is best-known for its annual Common Riding festival, which was described by the tourism Rough Guide as one of the best parties in the world, and for producing a greater number of rugby internationalists – 58 – in the modern era than anywhere else in Scotland. (It should be noted that Glasgow and Edinburgh Academicals accumulated a string of international honours before any other Scottish clubs sprung into existence). It was also the home of the late broadcaster, Bill McLaren, who famously declared that a day out of Hawick was a day wasted and who became universally known as the Voice of Rugby. He used to carry around with him a variety of mint sweets, called Hawick Balls, which were passed out by McLaren on his travels around the world.
The town is also renowned for its quality knitwear production, carried out by such well-known companies as Hawick Cashmere, Lyle and Scott, and Pringle of Scotland. The first knitting machine was brought to the town by an officer of the law, known as ‘Baillie’ John Hardie, who established his business with four hand-worked frames, producing linen stockings, and subsequently pioneering the use of lamb’s wool.
People in Hawick call themselves ‘Teris’ after a traditional song, which includes the line ‘Teribus ye teri odin.’ Many residents also speak the local dialect of their community, which is informally known as ‘Teri Talk’. This is similar, but not identical by any means, to the idioms spoken in surrounding towns, especially Jedburgh, Langholm and Selkirk. The Hawick tongue retains elements of Old English, together with particular vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation and its distinctiveness arose from the relative isolation of the town – it is one of the furthest communities from the sea anywhere in Scotland, and there was concerted, but ultimately futile, opposition to the decision to close the local railway station in 1969, one of the many victims of the notorious Beeching axe.
Some of the famous people to hail from Hawick include Sir Chay Blyth, Dame Isobel Baillie, and the motorsport trio, Steve Hislop, Stuart Easton and Jimmy Guthrie. The town has also produced three Scotland rugby internationalists who have won more than 50 caps: Colin Deans, Jim Renwick and Tony Stanger, the latter of whom scored the winning try in the famous 1990 Grand Slam-winning match against England.
JEDBURGH
This is a town and former royal burgh in the south of Scotland with a population of 4,090. The community lies in the Jed Water, a tributary of the River Teviot, and it is only a matter of 10 miles from the border with England. It boasts several historic buildings, including the substantial remains of Jedburgh Abbey, Mary, Queen of Scots’ House, and Jedburgh Castle Jail, which is now a museum.
The town’s close proximity to England made Jedburgh traditionally vulnerable to raids and skirmishes from south of the Border and, in 1745, the Jacobite army, led by Prince Charles Edward Stuart, passed through the town, en route to England. The expression ‘Jeddart justice’ or ‘Jethart justice’, where a man was hanged and tried afterwards, seems to have arisen from one summary execution of a gang of villains.
The town has produced several well-known people, including James Thomson, who wrote ‘Rule Britannia’ and was educated in Jedburgh, the Conservative MP, Michael An-cram, and the international scrum-half duo, Roy Laidlaw and Gary Armstrong, both of whom performed for Scotland and the British and Irish Lions with distinction.
Among the local specialities are Jethart Snails, which are brown, mint-flavoured sweets. The recipe is thought to have been brought to the town by French prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars and the boiled confectionery remains popular to this day.
KELSO
This is a market town and civil parish in the Borders, located where the rivers Tweed and Teviot have their confluence. The community has a population of 6,385, and is regarded as one of the most charming and quaint places in the south of Scotland, with cobbled streets, elegant Georgian buildings and a French-style market square. The other main tourist attractions are the ruined Kelso Abbey, and Floors Castle, a William Adam designed house which was completed in 1726. The bridge was designed by John Rennie, who was subsequently pivotal in the construction of London’s Waterloo Bridge.
Sir Walter Scott attended Kelso Grammar School in 1783 and said of the town: ‘It is the most beautiful, if not the most romantic village in Scotland.’ The aforementioned bridge was the cause of local rioting in 1854 when the Kelso townsfolk objected to paying tolls after the construction costs had been covered. Famous people from the community have included Sir William Fairbairn, the engineer who built the first iron-hulled steamship, the Lord Dundas, and constructed over 1000 bridges, using the tubular steel method which he pioneered, and Sir James Brunlees, who constructed many railways in the United Kingdom, in addition to designing the docks at Avonmouth and Whitehaven. On the sporting circuit, John Jeffrey was a member of the 1990 Scotland Grand Slam team and became famous throughout the game as the White Shark, whilst other internationalists from the club have included Roger Baird, Gary Callander, Andrew Ker, Adam Roxburgh and Ross Ford. Every year in July, the town celebrates the Border tradition of Common Riding, which is known in this case as Kelso Civic Week. The town has ample sporting and recreational pursuits to commend it, including two 18-hole golf courses and a National Hunt horse racing track, while the River Tweed is renowned for the quality of its salmon fishing.
LANGHOLM
This is known, colloquially, as the ‘Muckle Toon’ and is a burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, on the River Esk, with a population of 2,311. The community grew around the textile industry, but Langholm is probably best known as being the birthplace of the poet and author, Hugh MacDiarmid, and the engineer, Thomas Telford, and for the fact that the first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong, became the town’s first freeman of the burgh in 1972. The American, of Scottish ancestry, was delighted to accept the honour and declared at the time: ‘My pleasure is not only that this is the land of Johnnie Armstrong, rather that my pleasure is in knowing that this is my home town and in the genuine feeling I have among these hills, among these people.’
Langholm is surrounded by four hills, the highest being the 300m Whita Hill, on which stands an impressive obelisk, commemorating the life and achievements of Sir John Malcolm, the distinguished soldier, statesman and historian. The others are Warblaw, Meikleholmhill and the Castle Hill. The community’s local newspaper, The Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser, which is known locally as The Squeak, was established in 1848 and became the first penny paper in Scotland.
In rugby terms, Langholm RFC is the oldest club in the Borders, having come into being in 1871, although they have only won the Border League on one occasion in the 1958-59 season when they were inspired by the presence of British and Irish Lion, Ernie Michie.
MELROSE
This is one of the most picturesque locales in the Borders, a town with a population of 1671. The community’s name, in its earliest form, was ‘Mailros’ (‘the bare peninsula’), referring to the original site of the monastery, which was recorded by the Venerable Bede. This was later mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle with the name ‘Magilros’ (at which time, the town was part of Northumbria). It is a place which is steeped in history; with the resplendent Melrose Abbey surviving as one of the most beautiful monastic ruins in the country, and the burial site of the heart of the Scottish king, Robert the Bruce. The remains of the Abbey are cared for by Historic Scotland and the Roman fort of Trimontium stands nearby, close to Dryburgh Abbey. Melrose is also surrounded by a string of scenic villages such as Darnick, Gattonside, Newstead and Bowden.
Melrose is the home of Sevens rugby, with the abbreviated version of the sport, which has now been granted Olympic Games status, being invented by Ned Haig. The club has produced a significant number of Scotland internationalists, including Jim Telfer, who also coached the British and Irish Lions to success in South Africa in 1997; Keith Robertson and Craig Chalmers, who were members of the 1984 and 1990 Grand Slam-winning sides; and other such luminaries as scrum-half and former Scotland captain, Bryan Redpath, Doddie Weir, Robbie Brown and Graham Shiel.
The nearby Eildon Hills offer stunning vistas of the region and, if rumour is to be believed, King Arthur is supposedly buried there. Whatever the truth or otherwise of that statement, the community has much to recommend it to tourists and other visitors.
PEEBLES
This is a burgh in Tweeddale in the Borders, with a population of 8,159. Initially a market town, it also played a role in the woollen industry up until the 1960s, but the industrial composition of the community has changed in recent decades and it now home to many people, who commute to and from Edinburgh, as well as being a popular tourist destination. In the mid-19th century, this included health tourism, revolving around hydropathic establishments, which gradually developed into hotels, with the famous Peebles Hydro being one of the few survivors of that era. Notable buildings in the town include the old Parish Church, and Neidpath Castle, while Kailzie Gardens is another focal point. On a quirky note, Peebles has the highest shoe-shop-to-population ratio of anywhere in Britain, and the High Street features a diverse range of stores.
The community’s annual local festival is called the Beltane and involves – as in many other Border towns – a Common riding and a pageant, which culminates in the crowning of the Beltane Queen, flanked by her court, on the steps of the parish church.
Traditionally, a person who was born in Peebles was called a ‘gutterbluid’, although precious few can lay claim to that distinction any longer, because the community no longer has a hospital. However, some of the famous people connected with Peebles include the explorer, Mungo Park, who practiced medicine in the town; the author, John Buchan, who practiced law; and the folk musician, Eric Bogle.
In rugby terms, Peebles RFC were only recently invited to join the Border League in 1996 and, before then, had participated in friendly matches with their Border rivals, since being founded in the 19th century. They have recorded a number of positive victories in the last 15 years and more than justified the decision to grant them entry. In football, meanwhile, the Scotland player, Kevin Thomson, became the first Borderer to appear in a European final when he played for Rangers in the UEFA Cup final of 2008.
This Royal Burgh lies on the Ettrick Water, a tributary of the River Tweed, and has a population of 5,839. The people of the town are commonly knows as ‘Souters’, meaning cobblers, shoe makers and menders. Selkirk was formerly the county town of Selkirkshire and is the site of the first Border Abbey, while William Wallace was declared guardian of Scotland in this community, which also has connections to Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Marquess of Montrose. Selkirk’s population swelled, because of the woollen industry, although that has virtually vanished in the Borders, and the town is better known in the 21st century for its Common Riding, the production of bannocks (dry fruit cakes) and tourism, containing as it does many spots of natural beauty. It boasts a museum, an art gallery, and strong associations with the explorer, Mungo Park, the poet and writer, James Hogg (‘The Ettrick Shepherd’) and the fabled Sir Walter Scott, as well as being the home of the contemporary author and journalist, Allan Massie. It also boasts Scotland’s oldest horse racing track, the Gala Rig, on the town’s outskirts.
Selkirk men fought with Wallace at Stirling Brig and Falkirk, and also with Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn, but it their connection with the battle of Flodden in 1513, when all but one of their number perished, which has provided the most poignant memories. That lone survivor, ‘Fletcher’, brought back with him a blood-stained English standard, which belonged to the Macclesfield regiment, and cast the captured standard round his head to indicate that all his compatriots from Selkirk had died on Flodden’s fields.
The Selkirk Grace, a staple of every Burns Supper, has no connections with the town, beyond its name, originating as it did in the west of Scotland. Although attributed to Burns, it was already known in the 17th century as the Galloway Grace or the Covenanters’ Grace, but came to be called the Selkirk Grace, because the Ayrshire poet was said to have delivered it at a dinner, hosted by the Earl of Selkirk.
It reads as follows:
Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit.
Rugby has played a proud role in the history of the community, with the peerless Scotland and Lions stand-off, John Rutherford, only one of a clutch of Philiphaugh-based performers to have represented their country. The town’s cricket club, which was founded in 1851, has gone on to win the Border League on more than 20 occasions. And Selkirk also has links with a number of Scottish footballers, including Bobby Johnstone – one of the Hibs’ ‘Famous Five’ – and Celtic’s Sandy McMahon.