Coming Soon

Audio information

Narrator: Alastair Cunningham
Historic Guide (Will o' Phaup): John Nichol
Sung Ballads: Joyce Tinlin
Border Pipes played by Matt Seattle.

Character Profiles

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  James Hogg, the 'Ettrick Shepherd'

  1730 - 1813
  
  James Hogg was born at Ettrickhall, into a family of tenant farmers. An outstanding song collector, best-selling poet and essayist, he is best remembered for his experimental novel, 'The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner' which tells of the friendship between a religious fanatic and the Devil - or, possibly, his divided self! As a small boy, he worked on the family farm, spending only six months at school. From an early age he wanted to write, and what he lacked in formal education, he made up by reading anything he could find and by learning both from his grandfather, Will o' Phaup. His mother Margaret Laidlaw had a great repertoire of Border tales and ballads which she passed on to Sir Walter Scott, Hogg's friend and contemporary. Hogg is one of Scotland’s greatest nineteenth century figures, and a significant writer of international standing.
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  Michael Scott - Wizard

  1175 - 1232
  
  Michael Scott studied at Oxford and Paris Universities, becoming the greatest public intellectual of his days and court astrologer to the Emperor Frederick II. His writings and translations were valued around Europe but his involvement in alchemy, astrology and astronomy gave him a reputation as a "wizard". He is said to have lived at Aikwood Tower in Ettrick. Scott foresaw that a stone would kill him and so always wore an iron skullcap. However, he removed the cap whilst at church in Melrose, only to be struck by a stone from the crumbling roof which killed him. He is credited with teaching magic to the evil sorcerer William de Soulis of Hermitage Castle and with conquering an indefatigable demon, after it had succeeded in splitting Eildon Hill into its three distinctive cones. He is buried in Melrose Abbey.
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  Will O' Phaup 

  1691 – 1755
  
  William Laidlaw, grandfather of James Hogg, was shepherd at Phaup, (between Ettrick and Moffat) for fifty-five years. Generally known as Will o' Phaup, he was reportedly the last man in the Borders to see the fairies. Aged sixteen, his master bet the price of a herd of hogs that Will could beat an Englishman in a straight race - which he did and thereby launched an informal running career. He was also a great storyteller and singer; one of the local gentry wrote, “In the hall of the laird, at the farmer’s ingle and in the shepherd’s cot, Will was alike a welcome guest and he kept the whole in one roar of merriment...”.  His gravestone states, ‘For feats of frolic, strength, and agility, he had no equal in his day’.
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  Thomas Telford

  1757 - 1834
  
  Thomas Telford, the great engineer, was born in a shepherd’s cottage in Eskdale and left school at 15 to do his apprenticeship as a stonemason. At 25 he went to London with a saddlebag containing mallet, chisels, leather apron and some letters of introduction. He studied hard and rose from stonemason to architect, then to designer and engineer. In Scotland he is remembered principally for the Tay Bridge at Dunkeld, and for the Caledonian Canal. Thomas Telford became the first President of the Institution of Civil Engineers and is buried in Westminster Abbey.