Scottish Borders

Scottish Borders (often referred to locally as "The Borders" or "The Borderland") is one of 35 local government unitary council areas of Scotland. It borders onto Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north, and the counties of Northumberland and Cumbria in England to the south. The administrative centre of the area is Newtown St. Boswells. It covers all of the former counties of Berwickshire, Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire as well as part of Midlothian.

The area was created in 1975 as a two-tier region with the districts of Berwickshire, Ettrick and Lauderdale, Roxburgh, and Tweeddale within it. In 1996 the region became a unitary authority area and the districts were wound up. The region was created with the name Borders. The name Scottish Borders dates from 1996 and the creation of the modern council area.

Geography

Geographically the region is hilly in the south, west and north, with the River Tweed flowing west to east through the region. The east of the region is primarily flat sometimes with isolated small groups of hills. The Tweed and its tributaries drain the entire region with the river flowing into the North Sea at Berwick-upon-Tweed, and forming the border with England for the last twenty miles or so of its length.

History

The administrative region was formed from four traditional burghs Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire, Selkirkshire and Berwickshire but historically, the term Borders has a wider meaning, referring to all of the burghs adjoining the English border, also including Dumfriesshire and Kirkcudbrightshire - as well as Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmorland in England.

Roxburghshire and Berwickshire historically bore the brunt of the conflicts with England, both during declared wars such as the Wars of Scottish Independence, and armed raids which took place in the times of the Border Reivers. Thus, across the region are to be seen the ruins of many castles, abbeys and even towns.

The people of the Scottish Borders are very proud of their heritage and often speak of themselves as "Borderers", before they would say that they are Scots or British.

It also should be noted that even though there is a Gaelic name for the region, it has never been spoken in the area, and the traditional language of the area is Scots and its dialects.

Transport

The region has no railway stations. Although the area was well connected to the Victorian railway system, the branch lines that supplied it were closed in the decades following the Second World War. A bill is before the Scottish Parliament to build the Waverley Line, a commuter service south from Edinburgh to Melrose and perhaps Hawick. Today, the East Coast Main Line is the only railway which runs through the region, with Edinburgh Waverley, Berwick-upon-Tweed and Carstairs Junction being the nearest stations.

The region also has no commercial airports - the nearest are Edinburgh and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, both of which are international airports.

The main roads to and from the region are:

The A1, which runs along the east coast from London to Edinburgh; passing near Eyemouth.
The A7 which runs north to south from Edinburgh to Carlisle and the M6; passing through Galashiels, Selkirk and Hawick.
The A68 running from Darlington to Edinburgh; passing through Jedburgh, Newtown St. Boswells, Earlston and Lauder.
The A72, which runs east to west from Galashiels to Biggar; passing through Innerleithen and Peebles

Notable Towns and villages

Places of interest

External links

Borders' Dialect

Unitary authorities of Scotland | Regions of Scotland | Scottish Borders