Hawick Area

Hawick High Street

View from Ettrick Kirk

Langholm: The MacDiarmid Memorial

Area Main Page

The Hawick Area covers a swathe of countryside roughly following the line of the A7 and including a varied collection of border towns. It stretches from Langholm in the south to Selkirk in the north.

The southern gateway to the area is provided by the A7 as it makes its way north from Carlisle, providing a scenic alternative route to Edinburgh for those with a little time on their hands. The first town you encounter on the A7 is Langholm, a town whose history is intimately connected to the textile industry. North west from here is the remote settlement of Eskdalemuir, home to the largest Buddhist Temple in the Western world. North east from Eskdalemuir along minor roads that eventually lead to Selkirk are Ettrick and Ettrickbridge.

An alternative route through the area is provided by a minor road running even closer to the English border along Liddesdale to Newcastleton. This is an estate village built in 1793 for hand loom operators and the street pattern has changed little since.

North from Newcastleton is broodingly forbidding Hermitage Castle, in our view one of the two spookiest castles in Scotland (the other is rather more modern). Hermitage is not somewhere you'd willingly choose to spend the night...

The road from Newcastleton and the A7 from Langholm come together at Hawick. This is the largest settlement in the Scottish Borders, and here can be found much of Scotland's remaining wool and cashmere industry complete with factory shops and the many visitors they attract. Hawick's industrial past and very urban feel conceal a town that is full of pleasant surprises and really should be explored on foot.

North of Hawick lies Selkirk, on a tributary of the Tweed, the Ettrick Water. This was the site of a royal castle from the 1100s but remained a small village until 1791 when it began a century of dramatic growth with the building of woollen mills along the river valley.

The woollen industry as a whole has declined, and some of the large mills along the line of the river have now found alternative uses. But parts of the industry still thrive: Andrew Elliot Ltd's Factory and Mill Shop is an excellent example.