Travelling through Tweedsmuir, you’ll find an old inn at a bend in the road where hills, travellers, and stories have met for centuries. It’s called The Crook Inn, and one of its most memorable characters was a woman known as Jeanie O’ the Crook.
Jeanie Hutchison was born at the inn in 1807, daughter of John and Margaret, who ran the Crook and served as postmasters for the valley. When John died, Margaret and Jeanie carried on together — two women keeping a busy inn running in the early 1800s, at a time when that was anything but ordinary.
Jeanie was remembered for her spirit and quick wit. Farmers settling their accounts enjoyed her sharp banter as much as their supper, and travellers carried stories of her down the road with them.
In 1831, after the inn was renovated, a grand reopening was held. Among the guests was the Reverend Hamilton Paul, who surprised everyone by performing a brand-new song he had written called “Jeanie O’ the Crook.” In it, he jokingly proposed marriage, only to be firmly refused. Jeanie declared he was “owre aul’.” At twenty-four, she herself was already considered nearly too old to marry, but she clearly had no intention of rushing.
The song became widely known across the Borders, then vanished for almost a hundred years. It was rediscovered during research for the Tweedsmuir Ecomuseum, reset to music in 2020, and has been sung by the community ever since.
Jeanie died in 1839, aged just thirty-two, and lies in Tweedsmuir Kirkyard.
