Ettrick ( gd, Eadaraig, ) is a small village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lothi ...

area of Scotland. It is located on the B709, around south-west of the town of Selkirk.

Local area

Ettrick Water The Ettrick Water is a river in Ettrick, by the village of Ettrickbridge and the historic town of Selkirk, in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. The water, a tributary of the River Tweed, is known also as the River Ettrick, often locally ...

is the river which flows through the Ettrick Valley, and across its flood plain, the Ettrick Marshes, within

Selkirkshire Selkirkshire or the County of Selkirk ( gd, Siorrachd Shalcraig) 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 is the second fastest rising river in Scotland, and it runs through the village of

Ettrickbridge Ettrickbridge ( gd, Drochaid Eadaraig) is a village situated in the Scottish Borders region of Scotland, from the nearby town of Selkirk. It sits on the B7009 road, which follows the Ettrick Water south-west from Selkirk, along the Ettrick V ...

some dozen miles downstream, and the old town of Selkirk.

Ettrick Forest Selkirkshire or the County of Selkirk ( gd, Siorrachd Shalcraig) 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. ...

was a large

Royal forest A royal forest, occasionally known as a kingswood (), is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The term ''forest'' in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the ...

that is much depleted due to sheep farming and industrial forestry, though at some places by the banks of the Water, and in the ravines of its tributaries, places difficult for sheep and of small interest to loggers, the remnants of the fauna which composed the ancient forest can still be seen and enjoyed. Traditionally,

hill farming Hill farming or terrace farming is an extensive farming in upland areas, primarily rearing sheep, although historically cattle were often reared extensively in upland areas. Fell farming is the farming of fells, a fell being an area of unculti ...

of sheep and cattle farming have been important. In recent years, tourism has become increasingly important.

Literary connections

The area around Ettrick has several literary connections. The poet

James Hogg James Hogg (1770 – 21 November 1835) 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 ...

(1770–1835), known as the "Ettrick Shepherd", was born at a farm within Ettrick parish, near Ettrick Hall, and is buried in Ettrick Kirkyard. "Laverlaw", the fictional estate of Sandy Arbuthnot, Lord Clanroyden, in the works of

John Buchan John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. After a brief legal career ...

, is set near Ettrick.

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

's hero David Balfour in ''

Kidnapped Kidnapped may refer to: * subject to the crime of kidnapping Literature * ''Kidnapped'' (novel), an 1886 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson * ''Kidnapped'' (comics), a 2007 graphic novel adaptation of R. L. Stevenson's novel by Alan Grant and Ca ...

'' hails from the fictitious village of "Essendean" in Ettrick Forest. It is also mentioned in the traditional Scottish folksong, "Ettrick Lady", recorded by The Corries. Most recently, the Ettrick valley was used as the setting for the story "No Advantages", from

Alice Munro Alice Ann Munro (; ; born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Munro's work has been described as revolutionizing the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move f ...

's 2006 short story collection, ''

The View from Castle Rock ''The View from Castle Rock'' is a book of short stories by Canadian author Alice Munro, recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature, which was published in 2006 by McClelland and Stewart. It is a collection of historical and autobiographica ...

''. Ettrick was also home to one of Scotland's most enduring theologians, Rev

Thomas Boston Thomas Boston (17 March 167620 May 1732) was a Scottish Presbyterian church leader, theologian and philosopher. Boston was successively schoolmaster at Glencairn, and minister of Simprin in Berwickshire, and Ettrick in Selkirkshire. In additio ...

(1676–1732), Ettrick's minister from 1707. His seminal work, ''Human Nature in its Fourfold State'', was widely read throughout Scotland by people of all classes and is still in print today.

Tibbie Shiel Tibbie Shiel (1783–1878) was a Scottish figure who ran Tibbie Shiel's Inn on St Mary's Loch in the Scottish Borders and was known to many authors and poets, and the subject of numerous literary works. Life She was born Isabella Shiel in ...

, the topic of much literature, was born here and is buried here.

References

External links

SCRAN File: Ettrick MillRCAHMS/Canmore: Ettrick Bridge
Villages in the Scottish Borders Parishes in Selkirkshire {{Borders-geo-stub