Scott-Land: Sir Walter in The Borders
Abbotsford, The Home of Sir Walter Scott, is a major tourist attraction bringing hundreds of thousands of visitors a year. Visitors are drawn to the ‘conundrum castle’, a Scots Baronial mansion in stunning grounds and gardens. It’s owner was a novelist, poet and historian who had a huge impact on English literature during his lifetime (1771 - 1832). He was one of the worlds first superstars. A born storyteller, Scott’s influence on Scottish culture goes so far beyond his novels and can be felt in all corners of the country. In the Borders however, the Scott worship goes into overdrive - indeed for us 21st century Borderers his presence is pervasive, but feels almost hidden in plain sight - we have probably become blind to just how huge a star Scott was and how important celebrating him was to our forefathers. The truth is, people don’t read as much Scott anymore, but I don’t think this means we should just write him off as anachronistic - far from it, we need to understand his importance to Scotland, and particularly The Borders. With that in mind, I’ve pulled together this blog which will be a virtual journey across The Borders, from Peeblesshire to Selkirkshire, out to Kelso and onward via The Teviot towards Liddesdale. Along the way I will try to note all the memorials, sights and tales related to Scott I could find (spoiler - there are hunners!) I won’t be debating his legacy or trying to understand his politics - above all the aim of this blog is simply to draw attention to just how important he is to how we view The Borders, and how The Borders viewed him…
One wee note before I start - the blog title of Scott-Land is pinched from the excellent 2010 book ‘Scott Land: The Man Who Invented a Nation” by Borders based author and critic Stuart Kelly. If you want something a bit meatier than my bloggy witterings on Scott, then that’s a pretty good place to start…
Peeblesshire to Clovenfords
We start our wee virtual tour just outside Peebles, at the George Meikle Kemp Memorial. Kemp was the man who designed the Scott Monument, the ‘gothic rocket’ on Princes Street, Edinburgh which was the largest monument to any author when it was first built. This memorial is sadly a bit forgotten and neglected, but money has been found to restore it and it can be viewed from the new Peebles to Eddleston Path, so hopefully a bright future awaits. As an aside a Meikle Kemp Place can be found in the recent Melrose Gait development in Galashiels.
Into Peebles, and the town can claim to have it’s own ‘Scott Quarter’ with four streets named after Scott Novels - Ivanhoe Road, Marmion Road, Waverley Way and Talisman Place - all four are 20th century houses, located just off Kingsmeadows Road. The Cross Keys Hotel and in particular it’s landlady were said to be the inspiration for the Cleikum Inn and Meg Dodds in Scott’s novel ‘St. Ronan’s Well’.
Down the Tweed Valley we come to Innerleithen, once the home of Waverley Mill (now housing), with Waverley Road and Waverley Place still baring the name of Scott’s famous novels. The town is also well known for St. Ronan’s Well, named after Scott’s only contemporary set novel in an act of great opportunism by the people of the town - an act which Scott indulged in his lifetime, allowing Innerleithen to take Saint Ronan as it’s patron, and source of civic identity. A real deep cut that I want to include is that the road up towards the well is known locally as The Bellendene (St. Ronan’s Terrace). This unusual word was the war cry of Clan Scott, I have no idea if this name is a tribute to Sir Walter, but I include it anyway because why not :)
Winding our way down the Tweed Valley, eyes will be drawn to Ashiestiel, a grand house on the southern bank of the Tweed and home to Scott from 1804 to 1812, when he moved into Abbotsford. We then leave the Tweed temporarily to visit the couthy wee village of Clovenfords, which has a very curious statue of Scott. Scott was a regular at the Clovenfords Inn when staying at Ashiestiel and this is remembered by the statue from 1909. It is not stone or bronze, rather a suit stuffed with rags and paper mache, with a plaster cast placed on top. The head was made from clay and the whole is now reinforced by more than a century of paint jobs!
Saint Ronan’s Well
Innerleithen, named after Scott’s novel
Selkirkshire
Following the Tweed again, we pass Yair and The Southern Upland Way (which in The Borders also doubles as The Sir Walter Scott Way) before arriving at Selkirk. The Market Place of the Royal Burgh is dominated by a Statue of Scott and Walter Scott’s Courtroom, where he dispensed justice as Sherriff (or ‘Shirra’) for almost 30 years, from 1804 to his death. It’s now a tourist attraction, run by Live Borders, and welcomes visitors in the summer months to learn about Scott’s time in the town. Mannequins of Scott and various local ne’er do wells add to the atmosphere! I particularly enjoy the tail of poacher Tam Purdie who Scott ended up hiring as his handyman and friend at Abbotsford. There is also a Scott Crescent plus Scotts Close and Scotts Place in the town. If you go to The Haining, a mansion house now owned by the people of Selkirk, you will find a statue of Old Ginger, founder of the Dandie Dinmont dog breed. Dandie’s are named after a character in Scott’s novel ‘Guy Mannering’.
Statue of Sir Walter Scott
Selkirk, Market Place. Just outside Sir Walter Scott’s Courtroom
Heading south from Selkirk, we pass Carterhaugh. This large, flat haugh between the Ettrick and Yarrow is home to a famous Border Ballad (Tam Linn), but also hosted a game of hand ba’ in 1815 where Scott and fellow Border legend James Hogg ‘managed’ teams in a huge game, under the patronage of the Duke of Buccleuch. For those unfamiliar, Hand Ba’ is a sort of mix between rugby and wrestling and a semi respectable way of allowing old Border feuds to be carried out in the name of sport!
As we move up the Yarrow and Ettrick valleys, the influence of Scott is intertwined with Hogg with both The Gordon Arms and Tibbie Shiels being places they met. Indeed it was Hogg who guided the young Scott into these valleys to collect the Border Ballads he was able to save for posterity in his renowned collection ‘The Minstlrelsy of The Scottish Border’. Hogg’s mother (Margaret) was not happy that Scott had written these down - her belief was they were for singing, as had been the case for centuries. Another of Scott’s collaborators on this project was John Leyden of Denholm, a further great literary figure of The Borders, who is remembered in his home village by a prominent memorial on the village green.
Scott Mural
Bank Close, Galashiels
Heading North we arrive at Galashiels where Scott is everywhere! Lets deal with some of the street names first - Scott Street, Scott Crescent, Abbotsford Place, Road and Terrace, Kenilworth Terrace, Talisman Avenue, Waverley Place. A bust on Cornmill Square is dedicated to Great and Gallant Scott, and a sandstone relief is carved into the old Co-Op buildings on Channel Street. The words ‘Watch Weel’ are carved below Scott’s head, and are often attributed to him. You will find a Scott panel at the Great Tapestry of Scotland and around the corner, on Bank Close, is a large plaque remembering Scott’s visit to the building which is now the Royal Bank of Scotland. The plaque and many of the civic buildings of Galashiels were the work of local Baillie George Hope Tait. Most strikingly of all, a huge mural of Scott faces the plaque, covering the whole gable end of the building. It was commissioned by Energise Galashiels Trust and unveiled in 2022. If I was being cheeky I might suggest it’s the latest blow in a long running Border town rivalry to see which town is the most Scott-ish!!
“Watch Weel”
Channel Street, Galashiels
Abbotsford & Eildon
As I mentioned at the start, Abbotsford is the star attraction and a must see for any visitor to The Borders. Learn more about Scott’s life, warts and all, and take in the grounds and attractions of what he turned from Cartleyhole Farm, into the romantic wonder of Abbotsford. Easily accessed from Galashiels, it’s then only a short hop to our next stop of Melrose. You enter Melrose on Waverley Road, with Waverley Castle Hotel an imposing concrete building on the left. The hotel is situated on a small knoll known as skirmish hill due to a battle of Border clans which took place there of 1526, with Scotts and Elliotts fighting Douglases, Kerrs and Maxwells for custody of the young James V. A statue of Scott is found in the grounds of Waverley Castle. Heading into Melrose, you are inextricably drawn to Melrose Abbey, beloved of Scott and a huge influence on the architecture of Abbotsford. The Abbey is the Borders most visited historic attraction, and at least some of that must still be the result of Scott’s love of the ruin. He suggests, in his epic poem ‘The Lay of the Last Minstrel’, that the best time to see it is by moonlight…
If thou would’st view fair Melrose aright,
Go visit it by the pale moonlight;
For the gay beams of lightsome day,
Gild, but to flout, the ruins grey.
When the broken arches are black in night,
And each shafted oriel glimmers white;
When the cold light’s uncertain shower
Streams on the ruin’d central tower;
When buttress and buttress, alternately,
Seem fram’d of ebon and ivory;
When silver edges the imagery,
And the scrolls that teach thee to live and die;
When distant Tweed is heard to rave,
And the owlet to hoot o’er the dead man’s grave,
Then go – but go alone the while –
Then view St David’s ruin’d pile;
And, home returning, soothly swear,
Was never scene so sad and fair!
Before you break into Melrose Abbey after hours (tell the police Sir Walter sent you!), you can have a meal at Marmion’s Brasserie, Marmion being another poem of Scott’s.
Leaving Melrose we cross the Tweed and climb to the iconic Borders viewpoint, Scott’s View, named after Sir Walter who adored this spot overlooking the Eildon Hills, River Tweed and wooded idyll that is the Central Borders. It is claimed that during Scott’s funeral procession his horses carrying the coffin stopped here one last time, as was his custom, to allow their late master to admire his iconic view. Even in death, he was steeped in romance! The horses were on their way to Dryburgh Abbey, where Sir Walter’s tomb can be visited to this day. A peaceful and incredibly romantic ruin, it’s hard to imagine a more perfect final resting place for him.
Abbotsford
Entrance Hall, full of Scott’s collections
Image - SSDA/Duncan Ireland.
Smailholm and Kelso
“Then rise those crags, that mountain tower,
Which charmed my fancy’s wakening hour.”
From Dryburgh we head through the fertile farmlands of Roxburghshire until the sentinel of Smailholm Tower appears, sitting atop a rare rocky crag. Although inextricably linked with The Borders, Scott was born in Edinburgh, though he spent much of his childhood at his grandparents farm Sandyknowes. The farm was then, as now, in the shadow of Smailholm Tower. Scott contracted Polio and was a sickly child, but his imagination was surely fired by the rugged tower and the tales of Border Reivers and supernatural ballads shared by his grandparents. Today you can visit Smailholm in summer months where a permanent exhibition celebrates Scott and The Border Ballads he loved. Well worth checking out, and you can read more about the Tower in my blog, link below
Anne Carrick Smailholm Dolls Blog — Tweed Valley Blogger | Tour Guide | Scottish Borders
Leaving Smailholm, it feels that all roads lead to Kelso so lets head that way. This market town is busy, bustling and is fully prepared to stake it’s own claim to be the Scott-ish capital of The Borders - you can follow a trail dedicated to Scott around the town, which I will summarise here. Firstly, just after you pass the elegant gates of Floors Castle on Roxburgh Street is Walton Hall, where a small plaque on the wall informs you that it was the home of Scott’s publisher John Ballantyne, and Scott visited him there in 1820. The Old Mail Offices on Bridge Street (just off the Square) was where Ballantyne printed the first two editions of ‘The Minstrelsy’. Another plaque on the Abbey Row Centre tells of Scott’s attending what was then Kelso Grammar School while staying with his aunt at nearby Waverley Lodge (then known as Garden Cottage) in 1783. Waverley Lodge also sports a bust of Scott high up on the wall. Finally in Kelso, just round the corner from Waverley Lodge and near the present Mayfield Garden Centre is the site of a large Platanus tree where young Scott spent summer days shading underneath, reading poetry and further inspiring the young man.
Smailholm Tower
Accessed via Sandyknowes Farm, and home to a permanent exhibition on Scott and the Border Ballads
Teviotdale and Liddesdale
From Kelso, we track the Teviot Water 12 miles or so upstream to another Royal Burgh, Jedburgh. Home to yet another Abbey, this time with a striking mixture of Gothic and Romanesque architecture which appealed greatly to Scott. His greatest connection to Jedburgh however comes through his role as a lawyer. One of the towns excellent Blue Plaques at The Courthouse remembers his early excursions here as an advocate, as does an older plaque installed in 1932 to commemorate the centenary of his death. Later in life Scott visited Jedburgh often, as guest of Town Sherriff Shortreed. A further stone tablet in the town commemorates the visit of Dorothy and William Wordwsworth, with Scott as their guide.
From Jedburgh, we head towards Hawick, passing through John Leyden’s Denholm, and arrive at another town steeped in Scott. More street names - Waverley, Scott, Ivanhoe, Marmion etc! A fine plaque on Drumlanrig Tower (Hawick’s oldest building) also noted the visit of the Wordwsworths and Scott. Scott’s novel ‘The Lay of the Last Minstrel’ had Clan Scott stronghold of Branxholme, just south of Hawick, as a setting. The town is also name checked, more than once in the book.
“In Hawick twinkled many a light, behind him soon they set in night; And soon he spurr’d his courser keen, beneath the tower of Hazeldean.”
From Hawick we head south to end this tour, into Liddesdale, perhaps the bloodiest territory of all The Borderlands. On the way we follow the route of the now lost Waverley Line, which linked Carlisle and Edinburgh through The Borders. Of course the line was restored as far as Galashiels around 10 years ago, and campaigners still hold out hope that these remote valleys could once again have trains running through them. I would love to see it in my lifetime. Before long, we head up a side valley and arrive at Hermitage Castle, a place Scott visited many times and even had it included in a fine portrait by Sir Henry Raeburn, which can be viewed at Bowhill House, home to Scott’s very distant kinsman The Duke of Buccleuch. Hermitage is lonely and foreboding, and this valley was fertile when he was travelling with Leyden to gather ballads. He was even involved in excavations at Hermitage Castle, skills he would later famously use to locate the long lost crown jewels of Scotland at Edinburgh Castle. This extract from Leyden’s ‘Where Weeps The Birch’, which Scott collected into ‘The Minstrelsy..” gives an indication of the atmosphere they encountered at Hermitage Castle…
And here, beside the mountain flood,
A massy castle frown’d,
Since first the Pictish race in blood,
The haunted pile did found.
The restless stream its rocky base
Assails with ceaseless din;
And many a troubled spirit strays
The dungeon’s dark within.
The tour ends at Newcastleton, where Scott Street is a reminder of Walter’s many incursions into Liddesdale. From here, it’s but a short hop to Langholm, The Debatable Land and more bloody tales which Scott preserved and romanticised through his anthologies, stories and poetry. But I will leave that district for another day!
I hope you enjoyed this quick romp through Scott, and perhaps this blog has inspired you to visit some of these locations - TVB Tours can, of course, act as guide and companion should you wish to create a Scott Tour of your own. Almost 200 years after his death, his influence on Scotland remains huge, even if we don’t read his books in great numbers anymore. Scotland’s first superstar, who was never happier than when he was in The Borders, his own wee corner of Scott-Land…
Sir Walter Scott, by Sir Henry Raeburn
National Portrait Gallery Scotland
With thanks to the online archive of Historic Environment Scotland and the Walter Scott Trail by Kelso Heritage Society
