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Aikwood Tower

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Auld Watt’s son William Scott was a character who was caught sheep stealing once too often, despite his father’s warnings that times were changing after King James VI started to clamp down on the reivers. It wasn’t the Crown that young buck William had to worry about though, but an irate Sir Gideon Murray who is said to have offered the reiver a choice – the rope or the hand of his none-too-pretty daughter, known as ‘Muckle Mooth Meg.’ William was reputed to be full of bravado and said it was ‘nowt for a Scott to die’ but soon changed his mind and married the lass. Historians have subsequently proved the story as a tall tale, but it’s a good one. Robert Scott married an Elspeth Murray of Elibank at Aikwood in 1602, with their initials carved in a wall of the tower. The large pele was built in 1540 and now provides stunningly restored five star boutique accommodation in the Etterick Forest. It’s also a wedding venue and corporate setting near the town of Selkirk and b...

Dryhope Tower

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Walter Scott of Harden – or Auld Wat to give him his reiver nickname – was married to Mary Scott of Dryhope, a bonny lass known as ‘the flower of Yarrow,’ and they had six sons and six daughters. Auld Wat is famous for his dry line: “Aye, if you had fower legs, you wouldn’t stand there lang,” on passing a large haystack on his way back from one of his raids, while his bugle horn, complete with carved initials, is on display in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. He was also one of the chief riders in the rescue of Kinmont Willie Armstrong from Carlisle Castle. The substantial ruins of the tower at Dryhope are still standing beside Dryhope farm near Saint Mary’s Loch, surrounded by the beautiful green hills just off the Southern Upland Way, and can be visited.

Mary, Queen of Scots House, Jedburgh

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The crow stepped gables and smart houses of Jedburgh mark it as a typical Border town. But not many others can boast of having an original tower and bastle house where Royalty lived right in the centre. Mary, Queen of Scots, stayed there in 1566 and it’s now lovingly dedicated to her with a grand collection of objects relating to her on display in each themed room. It’s free to visit and open year round. Mary’s lover, then third husband, Lord Bothwell had been stabbed by the reiver Little Jock Elliot of the Park who is famous for the refrain: ‘Wha daur meddle wi me!’ She rode out from the town in miserable weather to where he lay injured at Hermitage. Mary caught pneumonia on the way and it almost killed her, leading the monarch to moan: ‘would that I had died in Jedburgh,’ as her troubles piled up. Jedburgh Castle Jail and museum was built in 1823 on the remains of the original Jedburgh Castle – ironically by an Elliot, whose kinsmen so often occupied the earlier cel...