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Taking a look at Scottish Borders Towns
This month we are celebrating Scottish Borders traditions, so we thought we'd start with some stories from a few of the fabulous Border towns in the area where we are based. Let's begin with Duns since that is our closest town and the home of ScotlandShop.
Duns is the county town of Berwickshire and is centred around it's market square. Pop into the bistro if you want a delicious sit down lunch or Border Baguettes if you need to grab a yummy sandwich to take away. Number 18 or Albany Vineyard are fab for gifts. For tourists Duns castle is a beautiful visit. The 14th century castle is set within extensive grounds and home to a huge variety of local wildlife. The castle is a popular wedding venue with fantastic accommodation on offer, and a stunning back drop for wedding photos with the castle having been used for many photo shoots and even featuring in the 1997 film Mrs Brown. You can learn more about the Hay family and their history at Duns Castle in our interview with them. Another fantastic place to visit is The Jim Clark Motorsport Museum, a small museum devoted to the life Formula One racing driver Jim Clark with an excellent collection of photographs, information and memorabilia. Brilliant for all car enthusiasts.
Hawick is the largest of the Border towns and has always been at the centre of the world's cashmere industry with many shops within the town selling a large selection of it's famous knitwear. Home to internationally renowned brands such as Pringle of Scotland, Lyle & Scott, Johnston's of Elgin and Peter Scott we work closely with our local manufacturers to bring you some of the finest knitwear and accessories in the world. The main event in Hawick is the annual Common Riding, a ceremony in which many of the towns residents ride out on horseback to check the town's boundaries, as well as a huge celebration of the town's youth being victorious over an English raid in 1514 in which they captured an English banner and proudly brought it back to the town. In 2007 Rough Guide described the Common Riding and one of the best parties in the world. We recently visited Hawick to meet John Fordyce, founder of the very first distillery in the Scottish Borders who explained why the water of the river Tweed is as critical to their business as it is to the weaving industry.
Melrose is a beautiful town based in the valley next to the stunning Eildon Hills. Within the town is Melrose Abbey in which Robert the Bruce's heart is buried and much of the town's history can be discovered. Melrose is the birthplace of Rugby Sevens and every April the town is overwhelmed with rugby fans from around the world flocking to watch some fantastic rugby and enjoy the party afterwards. The game of Rugby Sevens has become a hugely followed international sport and having been part of the Commonwealth Games for many years it will now make it's first appearance at the 2016 Olympic games. The Toon o' the Rose has black and yellow as it's colours and the Barclay Dress Modern tartan pictured here was worn by commentator and ex-international Scottish rugby star Doddie Weir at the Melrose 7s in 2014. Emily here at ScotlandShop has since designed Doddie his very own Doddie'5 tartan, and you can purchase from the collection which raises funds for MND. Another big event in the town's calendar is Borders Book Festival again drawing huge crowds to the town with many famous authors and celebrities in attendance.
Jedburgh is a beautiful little town close to the Border with England and home to many visitor attractions steeped in masses of history. At the top of the town is the Castle Jail & Museum with the museum showing life as the prisoners would have experienced in the 1800's. As well as the the impressive castle is Jedburgh Abbey on the banks of Jed Water, part of the Border's Abbey Trail. There is also Mary Queens of Scot's House, a home in which she visited in 1566 now a museum devoted to her life. The town has an annual event known as Hand Ba' in which two teams, decided by how you first entered the town (Uppie's came in from the south and Doonie's come in from the north), try to run a small ball either up to the castle or down to the bottom of the high street, there are no boundaries to when the game can be played and many shop keeps choose to board up their shop windows to prevent any damage caused by the game! Jedburgh is also a renowned textiles and kilt making town but sadly victim to the many mill closures in the last few decades there are only a few small, specialist manufacturers left in the town. Below is the Bell of the Borders tartan, the tartan of Clan Bell, one of the important Lowland families in the 15th century.
Peebles was crowned the most creative place of it's size in Scotland in 2014 and was given an award to help further enhance it's festivals and other events. We're very excited to see the impact of this on the town. Peebles plays host to part of the Tweedlove bike festival, with Glentress forest just outside of the town which is part of the 7 Stanes mounting biking centres across the south of Scotland, the town is very popular with cyclists having also had the Tour of Britain hold a stage through the town and beyond. Neighbouring tiny village Innerleithen was home to Ballantyne cashmere in until 1986, employing 470 local people and producing 4500 sweaters per week, most of which were destined for the USA, Japan, Italy and Hong Kong. Sadly due to pressure from cheap imports Ballantyne is no longer in operation and the loss of so many jobs in this rural area has had a huge effect on the local population. When ScotlandShop was established nearly twenty years ago we wanted to work with the surviving local knitwear and textiles manufacturers to promote our fabulous products worldwide, safeguarding some of the remaining jobs in the industry. By shopping with us you are helping us to do this. Our summer photoshoot in 2013 took place in Peebles and doesn't Natalia's Stewart Black tartan suit look great with the backdrop of the flags for the annual Beltane Festival?
Well there you have it, a little rundown of some of the most influential Border towns, of course there are so many more that are worth an honourable mention, Kelso, Coldstream or even Earlston, perhaps we will take a closer look at them later on in the month. If you have any interesting stories about any of the Border Towns, perhaps your ancestors came from here or you grew up in the area, we would love to hear them! You can email us or tag us on social media.
