Mrs Mack's House

This picture, taken sometime towards the end of the 19th century is of Mrs Mack's the house was next to her sawmill. In the centre of the picture is the bridge at Ellemford, so the picture is post 1860 and behind it Todlea, although at this point it had only one story, not the two that it has now. The site of this is in the garden of what is now Woodman's Cottage, which was built right at the end of the century. The picture below from a slightly different angle shows the hills behind, without the fir trees as they have today. Click both pictures to enlarge.

Roadworks at Ellemford

In spring 1860 Mr. N.D. Shaw a contractor from Perth began work on the construction of a new road between Ellemford and Smiddyhill for the Road Trustees of the county of Berwick. The road to be built was three miles long and included the erection of two bridges over the Whiteadder. The bridge at Ellemford consists of three arches of 40 foot span each and the one at Smiddyhill was a single arch of 50 feet. The estimated cost of the work was £5,000; that equates to around £475,000 in today's money.

Windshiel Farm

A STONE AXE, and a FLANGED, BRONZE AXE were found in the field behind the farm in the 19th century - it is the one to the right of the pine trees in the foreground of the picture and below the wood in the centre rear of the photo.



The stone in the photo below was found next to the ruined tower house at Windshiel Farm by Ted Baker the owner of the farm. It’s 1 ¾ inches in diameter and a little under ½ inch deep. It's a spindle whorl and would have been used in the spinning of wool. These were largely replaced by the spinning wheel in the 15th/16th Century.

Old Cranshaws Road

There used to be a road that run south from slightly to the east of the old kirk at Cransshaws. It's marked in yellow on the map below (click on both images to enlarge). On the picture below the map it shows the line of the road today - more stones on the ploughed field. Several pieces of hand worked metal and a crude lead weight with a saltire etched (bottom picture) on it have been found in this area indicating that there was activity of some kind here when the church was active. See HERE for more information.

The Bard in The Borders

Two hundred and twenty years ago this month The Bard left Edinburgh on a trip around the Eastern Borders.

It was on 5 May 1787 that Robert Burns and his friend Robert Ainslie, Burns left Edinburgh for a tour of the Borders. Ainslie was the son of the land-steward of Lord Douglas’s Berwickshire Estates, he was born at Berrywell near Duns. Ainslie was a law student in the Edinburgh office of Samual Mitchelson when Burns met him in early 1787. Both men were lovers of wine and women and the odd song so they forged a natural friendship.

Their route lay through Haddington, Gifford, Longformacus, Duns, Coldstream, Cornhill-on-Tweed, back to Coldstream, Kelso, Roxburgh, Jedburgh, Wauchpe, Kelso, Melrose, Dryburgh, Selkirk, Innerleithen, Caddonfoot, Galashiels, Earlston, Duns, Berwick, Eyemouth, Dunbar, Duns, Alnwick, Morpeth, Newcastle, Hexham, Longtown, Carlisle, Annan and Dumfries which he reached on 1 June. At Jedburgh and Dumfries he was made a freeman of the burgh.

Left Edinburgh (May 5, 1787)—Lammermuir hills miserably dreary, but at times very picturesque. Langton Edge, a glorious view of the Merse; reach Berrywell. Old Mr. Ainslie an uncommon character—his hobbies, agriculture, natural philosophy, and politics. In the first he is unexceptionably the clearest-headed, best-informed man I ever met with; in the other two, very intelligent.

Having been south into England they later returned to Duns prior to going to Eyemouth where boh men were made Royal Arch Masons at the local Masonic lodge

Wednesday May 16.—Dine at Dunse with the Farmers’ Club —company, impossible to do them justice— Rev. Mr. Smith, a famous punster, and Mr. Meikle, a celebrated mechanic, and inventor of the thrashing-mill. Thursday, breakfast at Berrywell, and walk into Dunse to see a famous knife made by a cutler there, and to be presented to an Italian prince. A pleasant ride with my friend Mr Robert Ainslie and his sister to Mr. Thomson’s, a man who has newly commenced farmer, and has married a Miss Patty Grieve, formerly a flame of Mr. Robert Ainslie’s. Company, Miss Jacky Grieve, an amiable sister of Mrs. Thomsons, and Mr. Hood, an honest, worthy, facetious farmer in the neighbourhood.

THE HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE LAMMERMUIR HILLS

Hopefully this will be the first of a series of talks on the the Lammermuir Hills by people with specialist knowledge of a particular subject.

• Did you know the B.6355 used to be the most important road in Scotland?
• What happened at Ellemford on 20th August 1513?
• What are shiels?

Come and find out the answers to these questions and much more

THE HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE LAMMERMUIR HILLS
A talk by Scottish Borders Council Archaeologist, Rory McDonald

7.30 p.m. Thursday 17th May Cranshaws Village Hall

It’s FREE
Drinks and Nibbles included!