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 […]

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 […]

Such a familiar journey but always special. Childhood fun and a good pun with history and mystery. Read the poem, Royal Border Bridge, here. The Royal Border Bridge is one of Berwick-upon-Tweed’s most iconic landmarks, carrying the East Coast Main Line high above the River Tweed. Designed by the renowned Victorian engineer Robert Stephenson and opened […]

An extract from the Edinburgh Evening Post, Wednesday 07 November 1832. Mr. WALTER THORNBURN was angling in the Tweed last week, and hooked a salmon at a place called the New Water, below Innerleithen. The fish proved remarkably camstairy from the beginning, refusing and despising all in manner of control. In short, he would neither […]

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 […]

Ralph Holmes has a assembled a unique history of salmon net fishing on the Tweed. As part of the Tweed Stories project, oral historian, Harry Henderson interviewed Ralph about his family’s fish merchant business, Ralph Holmes & Sons, founded in Berwick the mid-1800s. Ralph explains the company’s relationship with the net fishermen on the River […]