Polmood is a small settlement in southern Scotland near Tweedsmuir in the Scottish Borders, in the valley of the River Tweed.
Polmood was for many centuries the centre of the Hunter family in the lowlands and the earliest record was a charter dated 1057 to Norman Hunter of Polmood. It was once a Peel tower, part of a chain of beacons running down the Tweed Valley. At the end of the nineteenth century the temporary Talla Railway was built close to Polmont to deliver building materials during the construction of the Talla Reservoir. [1]
The estate was acquired by Mitchell Mitchell-Thomson, an Edinburgh businessman and politician who took his baronetcy title from the Peeblesshire estate of Polmood which he had acquired before 1916.
Polmood is commemorated in "The Piper of Polmood" a piece based on old Scottish folk-tunes by Victor Babin.
A Norman Hunter of Polmood, described as the ninth of that name and chief forester of the King of Scotland, features as one of the main characters in The Bridal of Polmood, a tale by James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd. [2]
The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. The council area occupies approximately the same area as the historic shires of Berwickshire, Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire, and Selkirkshire. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the west, and the English ceremonial counties of Cumbria and Northumberland to the south. The largest settlement is Galashiels, and the administrative centre is Newtown St Boswells.
The Yarrow Water is a river in the Borders in the south east of Scotland. It is a tributary of the Ettrick Water and renowned for its high quality trout and salmon fishing. The name "Yarrow" may derive from the Celtic word garw meaning "rough" or possibly share a derivation with the English name "Jarrow".
James Hogg was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots and English. As a young man he worked as a shepherd and farmhand, and was largely self-educated through reading. He was a friend of many of the great writers of his day, including Sir Walter Scott, of whom he later wrote an unauthorised biography. He became widely known as the "Ettrick Shepherd", a nickname under which some of his works were published, and the character name he was given in the widely read series Noctes Ambrosianae, published in Blackwood's Magazine. He is best known today for his novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. His other works include the long poem The Queen's Wake (1813), his collection of songs Jacobite Relics (1819), and his two novels The Three Perils of Man (1822), and The Three Perils of Woman (1823).
Peeblesshire, the County of Peebles or Tweeddale is a historic county of Scotland. Its county town is Peebles, and it borders Midlothian to the north, Selkirkshire to the east, Dumfriesshire to the south, and Lanarkshire to the west.
Selkirkshire or the County of Selkirk is a historic county and registration county of Scotland. It borders Peeblesshire to the west, Midlothian to the north, Roxburghshire to the east, and Dumfriesshire to the south. It derives its name from its county town, the royal burgh of Selkirk. The county was historically also known as Ettrick Forest.
Tweeddale is a committee area and lieutenancy area in the Scottish Borders council area in south-eastern Scotland. It had also been a province in the Middle Ages. From 1975 to 1996 it was a local government district. Its boundaries correspond to the historic county of Peeblesshire.
The Southern Uplands are the southernmost and least populous of mainland Scotland's three major geographic areas. The term is used both to describe the geographical region and to collectively denote the various ranges of hills and mountains within this region. An overwhelmingly rural and agricultural region, the Southern Uplands are partly forested and contain many areas of open moorland - the hill names in the area are congruent with these characteristics.
Drumelzier, is a village and civil parish on the B712 in the Tweed Valley in the Scottish Borders.
Tweedsmuir is a village and civil parish in Tweeddale, the Scottish Borders Council district, southeastern Scotland.
The Crook Inn is an inn in the Scottish Borders, near the village of Tweedsmuir on the A701 road between Broughton and Moffat. It is one of many claimants to be the oldest inn in Scotland. It was licensed in 1604. Robert Burns wrote "Willie Wastle's Wife" there. It has served as a coaching inn, a Post Office and source of employment. In the early 20th century a halt was built on the Talla Railway to serve it. The inn attracted much passing trade from the labourers who were building the Talla Reservoir, which the railway was built to serve.
Sir Mitchell Mitchell-Thomson, 1st Baronet, FRSE, FSA(Scot) was a British merchant and businessman who served as the Lord Provost of Edinburgh 1897 to 1900. He was also a Director of the Bank of Scotland.
Stanhope is a small settlement in the Scottish Borders region. It is situated in the parish of Drumelzier in Peeblesshire, in the valley of the River Tweed.
Kingledoors is a group of settlements in a valley in southern Scotland near Tweedsmuir in the Scottish Borders, in the valley of the River Tweed. It is part of the parish of Drumelzier and is bounded on the north by Mossfennan, on the east by Polmood, on the south by the lands of Crook and Oliver.
Letterewe is a large estate of several tens of thousands of acres on the north-eastern shore of Loch Maree, South-East of Poolewe, in Wester Ross, Scotland. It is one of the wildest, most remote, and least populated areas in the United Kingdom.
The Moffat Hills are a range of hills in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. They form a roughly triangular shape with a west facing side, a north facing side, and a south-east facing side. It is 17 kilometres from east to west across this triangle and some 16 kilometres north to south. The highest point is White Coomb at 821 m (2694 ft). The town of Moffat lies just south of the Moffat hills and along with Tweedsmuir, at the northern extremity, is the only centre of population around these hills. In some older maps, the northern part of the Moffat Hills is called the Tweedsmuir Hills, but can also be known by the title Manor Hills.
Traquair is a small village and civil parish in the Scottish Borders; until 1975 it was in the county of Peeblesshire. The village is situated on the B709 road 2.0 miles (3.2 km) south of Innerleithen at grid reference NT330346.
Manor Water is a river in the parish of Manor, Peeblesshire in the Scottish Borders. It rises in the Ettrick Forest and flows down through the Maynor valley, passing the various farms and hamlets of Maynor as well as Kirkton Manynor, where the Maynor kirk and village hall are flowing into the River Tweed one mile south of Peebles at Olde Maynor Brig, which is closed to traffic for the foreseeable future.
Menzion, sometimes Minzion is a small settlement in southern Scotland near Tweedsmuir in the Scottish Borders, in the valley of the River Tweed.
Baron of Stobo is a title of nobility in the Baronage of Scotland which takes its name from Stobo in the Scottish Borders.
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