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Romance and adventure on the river

What a Romantic River – canoeing in the ice at winter time with my husband-to-be. [Peebles and Neidpath] In the 1980s I paddled down the Tweed from Peebles to the sea. It took me two days. The Tweed Canoe Club, based in Galashiels, meets in a pond at Tweedbank to teach young people to canoe. […]

Crossing the middle Tweed over the centuries

The old highway to Edinburgh crossed the Tweed near Tweedbank. It was known as ‘Garthgate’, the King’s Road. Between Melrose and Galashiels there was a very old crossing of the Tweed called Pringles Bridge, which has now been completely lost. It was associated with the cannons being taken over the river for the battle at […]

Whaur aw life glisters in a length o Tweed

When I booked into Robert Smail’s Printing Press in Innerleithen for a letterpress workshop, I needed some words to practise with. My friend, Lindsay Macgregor, is a gifted poet and she’d been commissioned to write a poem about Peeblesshire as part of an anthology of poems from across the UK. I think her riddle sums […]

Pool Names of the Lower Teviot

Here is a concrete representation of pool names on the Lower Teviot Pools between Roxburgh and Kelso. It was published in a pocketbook by Polygon in 2001 called ‘The Order of Things’. The River Teviot is the largest tributary of the River Tweed by catchment area. The Teviot is an important river for wildlife, especially the Atlantic salmon.

Summer fun at the Dookits!

I just wanted to share some of my childhood memories of swimming and jumping into the Tweed at the Dookits near Neidpath Castle, as well as at various other spots along the river. So many hours were spent during the summer holidays with gangs of friends, floating down the river on inner tubes, jumping off […]

Newstead Sundials Festival 2026

Following the success of its inaugural event in 2025, the Newstead Sundials Festival returns on Sunday 6 September 2026, promising an even bigger celebration of the village’s rich heritage, creativity and community spirit. Set at the foot of the Eildon Hills on the banks of the River Tweed, Newstead is home to Trimontium, one of […]