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Scottish Borders

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Retro junkies (talk | contribs) at 17:50, 24 April 2007 (remove Gaelic, no evidence that this as ever been spoken here (personally i know that it has NEVER been spoken here)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Template:Infobox Scotland council area

The Scottish Borders often referred to simply as the Borders, is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland.[1] It is bordered by 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 non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland and Cumbria in England to the south. The administrative centre of the area is Newtown St. Boswells.

The area was created in 1975, by merging the former 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. The name Scottish Borders dates from 1996, shortly after the creation of the modern council area, when the new council itself decided to add the word Scottish to the name.

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

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.

Although there is evidence of some Scottish Gaelic in the origins of place names such as Innerleithen ("confluence of the Leithen"), Kilbucho, Auchencrow etc, which contain identifiably Goidelic rather than Brythonic Celtic elements, the language has tended to be weak to non-existent in some parts of the region. Since the 5th century, there has been evidence of two main languages in the area: Brythonic and Old English, the latter of which developed into its modern forms of English and Scots.

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 has been passed by the Scottish Parliament to extend the Waverley Line, which would be a commuter service from Edinburgh to Stow, Galashiels and Tweedbank. Today, the East Coast Main Line is the only railway which runs through the region, with Edinburgh Waverley, Berwick-upon-Tweed and Carlisle being the nearest stations.

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-upon-Tyne, both of which are international airports.

The main roads to and from the region are:

Towns and villages

Places of interest

Notes and references

  1. ^ Local councils of Scotland, Directgov website

See also

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