I recommend the book ‘Witch Wood’ by John Buchan, who lived in Broughton. A great fictional novel in Scots and English set locally – the names and places are changed but it’s clearly this area. The Buchan Way is a great walk. Peebles to Broughton via Stobo, the route is named after novelist and MP […]

Snorkelling in the river is like flying over the landscape – columns of rock creating a canyon. I am a long time outdoor swimmer and I love exploring (said Jacquie, who lives near Biggar). I tried snorkelling near Carlowse Bridge on the road to Tweedsmuir. There were no fish, but a huge trout jumped out […]

Peebles Bowling Club meets on Mondays and Thursdays and finishes at 12.15. I am a full time carer for my wife, but I go to the bowling club then cycle across the Peebles rugby fields and hide my bike in the wood. Then I sit beside the river, opposite Kings Meadow woodland, with my Book […]

In the 1200s, the Tweedies of Drumelzier went off to fight in the Crusades. When one of the Tweedy men came back, he discovered his wife had mysteriously fallen pregnant while he was away. She told him, ‘The devil came out of the Tweed’! The Spirit of the Tweed. A great story! Different versions of […]

There are different ways of enjoying the waters in Merlindale, according to these locals. Boating on the field – when our grandson was little and the river flooded the fields here, we would put him in the rubber dinghy to paddle around on the floodwaters because we knew it was safe! My favourite swimming spot […]

In June 2026, the Albert Watson Memorial Hut, a bike bothy at Tweedsmuir, needed a new roof. The hut was built in 1947 for a Glasgow cycling club and is still used with permission by cyclists wanting overnight accommodation. The cost of the roof repairs was about £3,000, and I estimated I could get 60 […]