Beneath our feet lie geological clues about our distant past and evidence of how life evolved on Earth. In Berwickshire and north Northumberland, the most common rocks are Carboniferous limestones, mudstones and sandstones. In the lowlands surrounding the River Tweed, the bedrock is covered by thick glacial deposits of clay, silt and sand. Embedded in […]

The Union Chain Bridge spans the River Tweed between the parishes of Hornclifffe in Northumberland and Hutton in Berwickshire, five miles upstream from Berwick on Tweed. It was built in 1820 by an engineer who lived in Eyemouth, named Captain Samuel Brown. Designed using innovative engineering techniques for the time, the Bridge is locally loved […]

For centuries, salmon fishing on the River Tweed shaped local life and livelihoods. Although net fishing ended in the 1980s, one historic tradition continues each year at Norham. Since Victorian times, the Vicar of Norham has offered prayers at Pedwell Landing at the start of the salmon fishing season, asking for a blessing on the […]

It’s been 10 years since my favourite immersive Tweed experience. Every year I explore a new Scottish waterway with a fellow adventurer and for 2016 it was the year of the Tweed. Paddling from Innerleithen to Norham over three days was unforgettable. Full of wildlife, and stunning historic buildings and bridges, there was a steady […]

After visiting my daughter and her family between Christmas and New Year I was travelling home through the Tweed valley between Coldstream and Kelso. Late afternoon and a clear sky. Amid the seasonal hurly burly this view was, in every sense, a breath of fresh air.

Just ten miles from the English border, Jedburgh Abbey is one of Scotland’s most striking monastic ruins. Its story stretches back to the 9th century, when the area was part of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria and the first church was gifted to the See of Lindisfarne. In 1118, Prince David, later King David I, […]