Coming Soon

Audio information

Narrator: Alastair Cunningham
Historic Guide (Flower of Yarrow)
Sung Ballads: Kathy Hobkirk 

Character Profiles

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  Marion Scott 'The Flower of Yarrow'

  1522 - 1598
  
  Marion (or Mary) Scott, “The Flower of Yarrow”, was born at Dryhope, the daughter of John Scott, 2nd of Dryhope who built the tower overlooking St Mary's Loch. She was famed for her beauty, hence ‘The Flower of Yarrow’ epithet. She married Walter Scott of Harden, later known as ‘Auld Wat’, and at first they lived at Dryhope. 'Auld Wat was a great reiver; it was said he could put 3000 men in the saddle and he regularly raided with several hundred. He was with 'The Bold Buccleuch' in the rescue of Kinmont Willie Armstrong from Carlisle Castle. The couple later moved to Kirkhope Tower in Ettrick, scene of the ‘Whaup o' the Rede’ story: Wat’s men returned from a raid on Redesdale with a baby boy that Marion took under her wing and raised as a foster son. Along with her good looks she had a sense of humour: when the larder was empty she presented Wat with a pair of spurs on his dinner plate. She had six sons of her own including Sir William who married 'Muckle-mouthed Meg' of Elibank and was the ancestor of Sir Walter Scott.
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  The Wizard Merlin

  About 540 - 584
  
  Merlin,  known also as Merlin Caledonensis, is well known as a figure from Arthurian legend and from European medieval literature. The historical Merlin was a druidic bard who ended his days as a prophet and mystic, wandering the forests of Upper Tweeddale. In August 584 he is said to have met St Mungo (aka. St Kentigern) near the site of what is now Stobo Kirk, and was converted to Christianity. Merlin reportedly told the saint at the time that he had foreseen his own death by falling, stabbing, and drowning. Later that day Merlin, probably a wild-looking man, was chased by a group of shepherds and fell off a cliff into the Tweed, where he was impaled on a stake that secured a fisherman's net, and drowned. He is said to be buried by a thorn tree (tree and plaque there but clearly not the original tree!) just downstream from a house called Merlindale where the Powsail Burn, also known as the Drumelzier burn, meets the River Tweed. 
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  William Douglas 1st Earl of March

  1665 – 1705 
  
  William, 1st Earl of March and son of the Duke of Queensberry, lived at Neidpath Castle on the Tweed just outside Peebles. He had high hopes of a good marriage for his beautiful youngest daughter Jean. But Jean fell in love with the untitled Laird of Tushielaw in Ettrick Forest and her father forbade her from seeing him. The laird joined the army and fought on the continent while Jean pined away in grief. On the laird's return he didn't recognise Jean in her wasted state - and she is said to have died of a broken heart. A sorrowful lady in a brown dress still occasionally haunts the castle. The story is the subject of a poem by Sir Walter Scott and is also remembered in 'The Earl o' March's Daughter' a song by Moffat folk singer Lionel McClelland.
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  Mungo Park

  1771 - 1806
  
  Mungo Park was born at Foulshiels on the Yarrow Water and is best known for his exploration of the River Niger. After Selkirk Grammar School he was apprenticed, aged fourteen, to Thomas Anderson, a surgeon in Selkirk. He completed his medical studies in 1792 and three years later was leading his first expedition to West Africa where he followed the course of the Niger for 300 miles but was imprisoned by the Moors for four months. He escaped and was back home in 1797. In 1806 he set off again but drowned escaping local tribesmen. He is remembered with a fine monument in Selkirk.