H ifor Hermitage Castle and Hawick

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"My Scottish Borders"

H is for: 

HERMITAGE CASTLE and HAWICK

HERMITAGE CASTLE, near Newcastleton,  is set in an isolated part of Liddesdale, some 18 miles south of Hawick, close 'to the  Scottish-English border.  Be prepared to travel on single track roads, with passing places to reach this forbidding place.  

The  castle was begun by an English lord, Sir Hugh de Dacre, and captured by  Sir William Douglas in 1338, one of Scotland’s most powerful noblemen,  He was an ambitious man who responded to the appointment by  King David II of Alexander Ramsay as Sheriff of Teviotdale by imprisoning Ramsay in Heritage Castle and starving him to death.

One ballad recalls another encounter:

"They shot him dead at the Nine-Stane Rig

Bweside the Headless Cross

And they left him lying in his blood

Upon the moor and moss."

With a long history of bloodshed, Hermitage Castle also hosted a romantic, if somewhat scandalous, tryst. In October 1566, the 4th Earl of Bothwell, secret lover of Mary Queen of Scots, was badly injured in a skirmish with reivers. On hearing the news, Mary  rode out to visit him from Jedburgh, a 50 mile  round trip moorland ride that almost cost her her life

Until recently I lived in HAWICK" (pronounced Haw-ick)  is the largest  town (pop. 15,000), and home of the  Heritage Hub,  the  Scottish Borders Archive, Local and Family History Service.  This is the place to contact if you have any ancestral connections with the region . have a look at the website www.heartofhawick.co.uk/heritagehub. 

Hawick is best known as the home of the knitwear industry, which had  its origins in the late 18th century  when a group of enterprising young men established the hosiery trade, making stockings.  This  developed into underwear and then the fine outerwear which characterizes the trade today with names such as Pringle of Scotland, Lyle & Scott and Peter Scott. This is where the "twinset" was born in the 1950's.  The Borders Textile Tower House celebrates this  industrial and design heritage.

Looking down on the mill town of Hawick, with the Town Hall tower prominent

Click HERE to find out about the main event in the local calendar  -  Hawick Common Riding, described under letter C.   

Hawick people speak  a distinctive dialect: 
You - Yow  
One - Yin
Two - Twae
Going - Gaun 
More - Mair 

More Fascinating Facts on the Scottish Borders 

•  Hot Trod was the term for the legal pursuit of Border Reivers across the English-Scottish border in order to recover stolen goods  if necessary by forc

• David Hume (1711-1776) - his family had a small estate Ninewells in Berwickshire.  He was a phlipospher, historian, and essayist who became the most  influential thinker of the Scottish Enlightment with a world wide reputation.  He was only 26 when he published "Treatise on Human Nature" where he concluded that desire rather than reason governed human behaviour.

• James Hutton (1726-1797), although not born in the Borders,  has become associated with its history.  He is known as "the father of geology" and set about to explain the creation of the earth  in scientific terms.  The phenomenon known as "Hutton's Unconformity" can be seen in the  rocks alongside the Jed Water, near Jedburgh, Roxburghshire and on the cliffs at Sicar Point in Berwickshire. 

Follow the next stage of this A-Z Journey 

through the Scottish Borders

I is for

A Land of INSPIRATION

The Scottish Borders 

The old counties of Berwickshire, Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire & Selkirkshire 

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  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Borders

   
  
  Do take a look at earlier  posts in "My Scottish Borders
  
  
  A-Z Challenge Preview
  A-Z Challenge A - Abbeys,Abbotsford and Armstrongs
  A-Z Challenge B - Border Reivers, Border Ballads and Blackmail
  A-Z Challenge C - Common Ridings and Carter Bar 
  A-Z Challenge D - Dryburgh Abbey,  Duns Scotus and The Douglas Tragedy 
  A-Z Challenge E - Elliots, Earlston, Enigma Hero and Eyemouth Tart 
  A-Z Challenge F - Flodden, Fletcher and Flowers of the Forest  
  A-Z Challenge G - A Green & Pleasant Land and Galashiels