River Teviot

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Teviot, a river of Roxburghshire, formed at Geddingscleuch, 700 feet above sea-level and 12½ miles SW of Hawick, by head-streams that rise at an altitude of from 1200 to 1300 feet close to the Dumfriesshire border. Thence it runs 37¼ miles north-eastward till it falls into the Tweed at Kelso. Its chief tributaries are, on the left bank, Hislop Burn, Borthwick Water, and Ale Water; and on the right bank, Frostley Burn and Allan, Slitrig, Rule, Jed, and Kale Waters. The parishes which it bounds or traverses are Teviothead, Hawick, Wilton, Cavers, Minto, Bedrule, Ancrum, Jedburgh, Crailing, Eckford, Roxburgh, and Kelso. The towns or villages on or near its banks are Hawick, Denholm, Ancrum, Crailing, Eckford, Heiton, Roxburgh, and Kelso. Its scenery is everywhere pleasant, often brilliant, and sometimes even superb. Its immediate banks are, for the most part, a charming alternation of rich haugh and variegated, often abrupt, rising ground. Its basin is, for some distance, a comparatively narrow vale, flanked with bold green heights; for a greater distance it is a strip of alluvial plain, screened by terraced but undulating and tumulated dale, and overhung at from 3 to 8 miles' distance by terminating heights; and, in the lower course, it is a richly variegated champaign country,possessing all the luxuriance without any of the tameness of a fertile plain, and stretching away in exulting loveliness to the picturesque Eildons on the one hand, and the domelike Cheviots on the other. Its upper parts abound in fastnesses, both natural and artificial, which figured constantly and fiercely in the old Border raids. The trout fishing is capital, especially over the lower 5 or 6 miles; and the salmon fishing is very fair.—Ord. Sur., shs. 16, 17, 25, 1864-65.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer