#scottish borders

Brochs are often thought of as an exclusively Highland phenomenon. Now, it's true that the vast majority of surviving brochs are, indeed, found to the north of the Highland line, with Sutherland, Caithness, Orkney and Shetland noting the bulk of them and several more good ones to be seen out in the Hebrides.

They are not, however, exclusive to the Highlands, because this one - Edin's Hall Broch - is in the Scottish Borders, perched on a rise above the Whiteadder Water a few miles north of the town of Duns. I also know of a couple near Galashiels but am not sure how to get to them, so I haven't visited those. Perhaps another time. They're not so well preserved, anyway. It's very much another "you have to be actively looking for it" site, because the walk out from the nearest parking is a bit more than two miles long, though there are only a couple of steep bits so it's not too arduous a hike so long as you can climb over a stile.

Edin's Hall is interesting for reasons beyond just its unusually southern location. It was built inside a pre-dating Iron Age hillfort and so is surrounded by extensive earthworks, both defensive ramparts and the foundations of roundhouses and other structures. They're pretty obvious from the ground, but the layout is a little clearer from the air, as shown on this satellite picture I stole from Google Earth.

There's apparently some debate over whether or not Edin's Hall really 'counts' as a broch or if it was more just an unusually big stone roundhouse, partly because it's of a larger diameter (28m!) than most of its Highland cousins and so may not have stood as tall. I lean on the side of 'yes'; it's round, it's drystone, it has the interior cells built into the walls, it has an intramural stair, and it's not that much bigger than Carn Liath up in Sutherland (which nobody seems to dispute is a broch). I think that's enough of a broch to be going on with.

March 17th 1979 saw a collapse in the Penmanshiel Tunnel near Grantshouse Berwickshire, in the Scottish Borders, two men tragically lost their lives.

Shortly before 3:45 a.m. on 17 March 1979, the duty Railway Works Inspector noticed some small pieces of rock flaking away from the tunnel wall, approximately 90 metres from the southern entrance, He decided that it would be wise to shore up the affected piece of the tunnel and was making his way towards the site office to arrange this when he heard the sound of the tunnel collapsing behind him.

It is estimated that approximately 20 metres of the tunnel arch collapsed, with the resultant rock fall filling 30 metres of the tunnel from floor to roof and totally enveloping a dumper truck and a JCB, along with the two men operating them. Despite efforts to get to the men further falling rock prevented this.

The thirteen other people working inside the tunnel at the time of the collapse were able to escape successfully, but despite the efforts of rescuers (including a specialised mine rescue team) it was not possible to reach the two operators.

What must be more heart-breaking for the families of the two men, Gordon Turnbull and Peter Fowler is that it was deemed too dangerous to try and recover the bodies and the tunnel was sealed and abandoned their remains left buried where they perished.

A report into the collapse could not reach a conclusion on the overall cause due to the abandonment. However, geotechnical investigations of the area surrounding the tunnel found evidence suggesting fracturing of rock overlaying the tunnel and, in particular, an anticlinal structure of shattered and sheared rock intersecting the line of the tunnel in close proximity to the area of the collapse.

The report accordingly concluded that the collapse was likely to be the result of degeneration of the fractured rock overlying the tunnel in the end it stated that as the conditions leading to the collapse could not reasonably be foreseen—there were no grounds for finding any individual responsible for the accident.

Despite the enquiry findings British Railways were fined £10,000 “having failed to ensure that persons in the tunnel were not exposed to the risk of personal injury by the collapse of part of the [tunnel] structure”, they did not contest the case pleading guilty to the charges.

A memorial stands directly over the point of the rock fall in tribute to Gordon and Peter, the 3-sided Obelisk bares a plaque dedicated to each of the men, and the 3rd side bares the cross, with the memorial constructed from rock that had fallen that night.

February 26th 1672 – Border woollen industry established as naturalisation is granted to Philip van der Straten of Bruges who set up the first mill dressing and refining wool at Kelso.

In 1672, the Scottish Border woollen industry was in a transitional phase, moving from a primarily domestic, subsistence-based craft towards a more organised, albeit still pre-industrial, commercial footing. The period was characterized by a push to improve the quality of local cloth to rival English imports, supported by legislative efforts to boost Scottish manufacturing.

‘A petition presented reads Philippus van der Straten… intending to reseid in this country and imploy a considerable stock of money in dressing and refining of wooll, in order to which he hath already sett up a work and imployed diverse workmen who are now refining and dressing of Scottes wooll at Kelso… being born in Bruges in Flanders.’

Some subjects have very little for me to work from, the short extracted from the Register of the Privy Council.