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We’re delighted to be back with a new ‘Hidden Scotland Weekly’. We really hope that you enjoy reading.

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OUR VERY FIRST GUIDEBOOK

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We also have designed a pull out walking map of the old town that you can follow, where we also highlight the best places to eat and shop along the way. Every Pre-Order comes with a Old Town Walking map and Edinburgh Postcard Set - To secure your free gifts pre-order from the link below.

The Water Bull & The Kelpie

Living in any loch of note, the mythical Tarbh Uisge or Water Bull often appears as a huge black bull conspicuously lacking any ears. They’re said to come out at night to bresithed with regular cows and their offspring can be recognised by their curiously small, half-ears.

Most people considered them terrible luck and would kill the calf immediately. However, a wise woman from Islay once intervened with a farmer, advising him that he might need the help of his own Water Bull in the future. She told him to fatten it up on the milk of three different cows, but always keep it hidden in a barn away from his herd.

The farmer obliged for years, wondering if the trouble he was going to would ever prove necessary. One day, his daughter was sitting by the river when a handsome man approached and struck up a conversation. The girl was won over by the stranger’s charms until he laid his head down on her lap and she saw the seaweed tangled in his hair.

It was a well-known sign that this was a dangerous, shape-shifting Kelpie in disguise, attempting to lure her down to his lair. She gently placed his head on the grass before sprinting back to the farm as fast as she could. The girl had a good head start, but when the man transformed into a powerful horse and chased her, it was clear she wouldn’t make it home in time.

She screamed at the top of her lungs, the sound reaching over the fields to the farm. Before her father could react, the barn doors burst open, and the Water Bull thundered out into the open. It raced past the screaming girl and crashed into battle with the Kelpie. The pair fought wildly for hours, evenly matched until eventually they both fell into the loch. Neither creature was ever seen again.

Words by Graeme Johncock 

The Scottish Borders

Spread like a rumpled green blanket over a vast swathe of southeast Scotland, this is a land of widescreen hillscapes, clear-running rivers and lively festivals, a place where arable traditions prevail, where history resounds over every valley, and where the handsome towns and villages bubble with cultural activity. To the east, meanwhile, the sweeping cliffs of the Berwickshire coastline only add to the overall appeal.

The likes of Peebles, Melrose and Kelso are all well accustomed to winning over first-time visitors, twinning age-old architecture with modern, independent local businesses. The Borders doesn’t go in for large settlements – the biggest town is Galashiels, with a population that barely noses 15,000 – and this is a major part of the charm. The atmosphere-laden abbeys, towering castles and boundless open views that define the region were a rich source of inspiration for the likes of Sir Walter Scott and John Buchan.

Don’t be tempted, however, into thinking the pace of life never rises above a saunter. The mountain-biking and hiking options are not only exciting but genuinely extensive, while archery, diving and even surfing all get a look-in too. Bored in the Borders? Chance would be a fine thing.

Here are 5 places worth visiting.

HUME CASTLE

Almost wherever you travel in the regions, the atmospheric, hill-perched ruins just keep on coming. Hume Castle stands on the skyline like some gap-toothed monument, its crenellated fortifications hinting at a past that saw it become one of the most important defensive outposts in the Eastern Borders. Having been destroyed in the past, much of the stonework has been restored.

Learn more

LEADERFOOT VIADUCT

Opened in the 19th century as part of a railway line, the Leaderfoot Viaduct stands at 38m high and runs over the River Tweed. A Category-A Listed monument, it’s considered one of the Borders’ more striking landmarks and is relatively easy to access from the nearby Tweedbank Station.

Learn more

MARY QUEEN OF SCOT’S VISITOR CENTRE

Few historical figures still generate quite so much interest as the ill-fated Mary Queen of Scots. This absorbing exhibition – set in a 16th-century towerhouse – does a fine job of telling her tragic life story through period objects, paintings, letters and textiles. Long before her grisly end, Mary herself spent a month here in Jedburgh in 1566.

Learn more

ST ABBS HEAD NATURE RESERVE AND LIGHTHOUSE

In the breeding months of late spring and summer, the sheer cliffs at this coastal reserve come alive with feathered colonies of guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and fulmars. The sight of tens of thousands of seabirds is a memorable one, but it’s not the only reason to come calling: seasonal wildflowers are rampant on the nearby grasslands, and the inland Mire Loch is prime territory for butterflies and damselflies.

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WATERLOO MONUMENT

A lofty Doric column quarried from local stone, the 150ft Waterloo Monument has stood on the skyline for some 200 years, having been commissioned by a local nobleman to commemorate the Duke of Wellington’s victory over Napoleon. It took two attempts to build – the first collapsed in 1815 ‘with a tremendous crash’ – but the views from its base today are staggering.

Learn more

5 interesting facts about the Scottish Borders

1. Melrose Abbey has many fascinating carvings and memorials. Look up high and you might spot a pig playing the bagpipes.

2. Walter Scott used to visit Scott’s View so often that his horses would automatically stop there. When his funeral procession passed, the horses paused as usual, giving the writer one final look across to the Eildon Hill.

3. Thomas the Rhymer prophecised that one day a bridge over the Tweed would be seen from the Eildon Tree. The idea seemed ridiculous until the soaring Leaderfoot Viaduct was built.

4. On Roxburgh Street in Kelso a single horseshoe is set into the ground which was allegedly cast by Bonnie Prince Charlie’s horse in 1745.

5. A small stone on the Minch Moor marks the spot of the Cheese Well. Travellers would leave pieces of cheese for the fairies in return for safe passage on their trek.

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The Small Isles - Taken by Simon Hird

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