('Often simply refeared to locally as "The Borders" or "The Borderland") is one of 32
Local Government Unitary Council Areas of
Scotland . It borders onto
Dumfries And Galloway in the west,
South Lanarkshire and
West Lothian in the north west,
City Of Edinburgh ,
East Lothian ,
Midlothian to the north, and the counties of
Northumberland and
Cumbria in
England to the south. The administrative centre of the area is
Newtown St. Boswells . It covers all of the former
Counties of
Berwickshire ,
Peeblesshire ,
Roxburghshire and
Selkirkshire as well as part of
Midlothian .
The area was created in 1975 as a two-tier
Region with the
District s of
Berwickshire ,
Ettrick And Lauderdale ,
Roxburgh , and
Tweeddale within it. In 1996 the region became a
Unitary Authority area and the districts were wound up. The region was created with the name ''Borders''. The name ''Scottish Borders'' dates from 1996 and the creation of the modern council area.
Geographically the region is hilly in the south, west and north, with the
River Tweed flowing west to east through the region. The east of the region is primarily flat sometimes with isolated small groups of hills. The Tweed and its tributaries drain the entire region with the river flowing into the
North Sea at
Berwick-upon-Tweed , and forming the border with England for the last twenty miles or so of its length.
The administrative region was formed from four traditional burghs
Peeblesshire ,
Roxburghshire ,
Selkirkshire and
Berwickshire but historically, the term
Borders has a wider meaning, referring to all of the burghs adjoining the English border, also including
Dumfriesshire and
Kirkcudbrightshire - as well as
Northumberland ,
Cumberland and
Westmorland in England.
Roxburghshire and Berwickshire historically bore the brunt of the conflicts with England, both during declared wars such as the
Wars Of Scottish Independence , and armed raids which took place in the times of the
Border Reivers . Thus, across the region are to be seen the ruins of many castles, abbeys and even towns.
The people of the Scottish Borders are very proud of their heritage and often speak of themselves as "''Borderers''", before they would say that they are
Scots or
British .
It also should be noted that even though there is a
Gaelic name for the region, it has never been spoken in the area, and the traditional language of the area is
Scots and its dialects.
The region has no railway stations. Although the area was well connected to the
Victorian Railway System , the branch lines that supplied it were closed in the decades following the
Second World War . A bill is before the
Scottish Parliament to build the
Waverley Line , a commuter service south from
Edinburgh to
Melrose and perhaps
Hawick . Presently, the nearest railway stations are
Edinburgh Waverley ,
Berwick-upon-Tweed and
Carstairs Junction .
The region also has no commercial airports - the nearest are
Edinburgh and
Newcastle-upon-Tyne , both of which are international airports.
The main roads to and from the region are:
- Abbey St. Bathans , Ashkirk
- Broughton , Burnmouth
- Cockburnspath , Coldingham , Coldstream
- Denholm , Dryburgh , Duns
- Earlston , Eddelston , Ettrick , Ettrick Bridge , Eyemouth
- Galashiels , Greenlaw
- Hawick
- Innerleithen
- Jedburgh
- Kelso , Kirk Yetholm
- Lauder , Longformacus
- Melrose
- Newcastleton Newtown St. Boswells
- Peebles
- Roxburgh
- Selkirk , St. Abbs , Stow
- Teviothead , Town Yetholm , Traquair
- Walkerburn , West Linton
