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Theme Week Scottish Borders

Monday, 22 October 2018 - 12:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: Great Britain / Großbritannien
Category/Kategorie: General, Theme Weeks Reading Time:  8 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lothian and, to the south-west, south and east, the English counties of Cumbria and Northumberland. The administrative centre of the area is Newtown St Boswells. The term Scottish Borders is also used to designate the areas of southern Scotland and northern England that bound the Anglo-Scottish border.

The Scottish Borders are in the eastern part of the Southern Uplands. The region is hilly and largely rural, with the River Tweed flowing west to east through it. In the east of the region, the area that borders the River Tweed is flat and is known as ‘The Merse’. 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. The term Central Borders refers to the area in which the majority of the main towns of Galashiels, Selkirk, Hawick, Jedburgh, Earlston, Kelso, Newtown St. Boswells, St Boswells, Peebles, Melrose and Tweedbank are located. Two of Scotland’s 40 national scenic areas (defined so as to identify areas of exceptional scenery and to ensure their protection from inappropriate development) lie within the region:

• The Eildon and Leaderfoot National Scenic Area covers the scenery surrounding Eildon Hill, and extends to include the town of Melrose and Leaderfoot Viaduct.
• The Upper Tweeddale National Scenic Area covers the scenery surrounding the upper part of the River Tweed between Broughton and Peebles.

The term Borders also has a wider meaning, referring to all of the counties 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 council area was created in 1975, by merging the historic counties of Berwickshire, Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire, and Selkirkshire and part of Midlothian, 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. Following the election of a shadow area council in 1995 the name was changed to Scottish Borders with effect from 1996.

The region had until September 2015 no working 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 was passed by the Scottish Parliament to extend the Waverley Line, which aimed to re-introduce a commuter service from Edinburgh to Stow, Galashiels and Tweedbank. This section of the route re-opened on 6 September 2015, under the Borders Railway branding. The other railway route running through the region is the East Coast Main Line, with Edinburgh Waverley, Dunbar and Berwick being the nearest stations on that line, all of which are outwith the Borders. Since 2014 there has been discussion of re-opening the station at Reston which is within the region and would serve Eyemouth. To the west, Carlisle, Carstairs and Lockerbie are the nearest stations on the West Coast Main Line. The area is served by buses which connect the main population centres. Express bus services link the main towns with rail stations at Edinburgh and Carlisle. The region also has no commercial airports; the nearest are Edinburgh and Newcastle, 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, St. Boswells, Earlston and Lauder.
• The A72, which runs east to west from Galashiels to Hamilton; passing through Innerleithen and Peebles

Towns and villages are:

• Abbey St. Bathans
• Allanton
• Ancrum
• Ashkirk
• Broughton
• Burnmouth
• Cardrona
• Chirnside
• Clovenfords
• Cockburnspath
• Coldingham
• Coldstream
• Denholm
• Dryburgh
• Duns
• Earlston
• Edrom
• Eddleston
• Ettrick
• Ettrickbridge
• Eyemouth
• Foulden
• Galashiels
• Grantshouse
• Greenlaw
• Hawick
• Heriot
• Hutton
• Innerleithen
• Jedburgh
• Kelso
• Kirk Yetholm
• Lauder
• Lilliesleaf
• Longformacus
• Melrose
• Morebattle
• Newcastleton
• Newstead
• Newtown St Boswells
• Peebles
• Preston
• Paxton
• Reston
• Roxburgh
• Selkirk
• St. Abbs
• St Boswells
• Stow
• Stichill
• Swinton
• Teviothead
• Town Yetholm
• Traquair
• Tweedbank
• Tweedsmuir
• Walkerburn
• West Linton
• Whitsome
• Yair

Places of interest are:

• Abbotsford House
• Berwickshire Coastal Path
• Bowhill House
• Cheviot Hills
• Cessford Burn
• Coldingham Bay
• Dawyck Botanic Garden
• Dryburgh Abbey – Historic Scotland
• Duns Castle
• Edin’s Hall Broch
• Ettrick Forest
• Eyemouth
• Floors Castle
• Glentress Forest – Forest Enterprise
• Greenknowe Tower
• Harmony Garden – National Trust for Scotland
• Hawkshaw – ancestral home of the Porteous family
• Hermitage Castle – Historic Scotland
• Jedburgh Abbey – Historic Scotland
• Kailzie Gardens
• Kelso Abbey
• Lammermuir Hills
• Lauderdale
• Manderston
• Megget Reservoir
• Mellerstain House
• Melrose Abbey – Historic Scotland
• Mire Loch
• Monteviot
• Morebattle
• Neidpath Castle
• Nisbet, Berwickshire
• Nisbet, Roxburghshire
• Paxton House
• Pennine Way – National Trails
• Priorwood Garden – National Trust for Scotland
• Robert Smail’s Printing Works – National Trust for Scotland
• Scots’ dike
• Smailholm Tower – Historic Scotland
• Southern Upland Way – National Trails
• St. Abbs Head
• St. Mary’s Loch
• St. Ronans Wells
• Teviotdale
• Thirlestane Castle
• Traquair House
• Trimontium
• Union Bridge
• Waterloo Monument
• Wedderburn Castle

Here you can find the complete Overview of all Theme Weeks.

Read more on Scottish Borders Council, VisitScotland.com – Scottish Borders, ScotlandInfo.eu – Scottish Borders and Wikipedia Scottish Borders. Learn more about the use of photos. To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Johns Hopkins University & Medicine - Coronavirus Resource Center - Global Passport Power Rank - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.

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