Kingledoors is a group of settlements in a valley in southern

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

near

Tweedsmuir Tweedsmuir ( gd, Sliabh Thuaidh) is a village and civil parish in Tweeddale, the Scottish Borders Council district, southeastern Scotland. Geography The village is set in a valley, with the rolling hills and burns on both sides, covering some ...

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 ...

, in the valley of the

River Tweed The River Tweed, or Tweed Water ( gd, Abhainn Thuaidh, sco, Watter o Tweid, cy, Tuedd), is a river long that flows east across the Border region in Scotland and northern England. Tweed cloth derives its name from its association with the R ...

. It is part of the parish of

Drumelzier Drumelzier (), is a village and civil parish on the B712 in the Tweed Valley in the Scottish Borders. The area of the village is extensive and includes the settlements of Wrae, Stanhope, Mossfennan and Kingledoors. To the north is Broughton an ...

and is bounded on the north by Mossfennan, on the east by

Polmood 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 d ...

, on the south by the lands of Crook and Oliver. Kingledoors - geograph

The settlement is at the foot of a long valley through which runs Kingledoors Burn and it is divided into three parts – Chapel Kingledoors is a small settlement at the foot of the valley, Kingledoors Hope or Over Kingledoors is at the tope end of the valley and. Kingledoors Craig occupies the lands to the north of the Burn. Kingledoors was originally part of the barony of

Oliver Castle Oliver Castle was a medieval tower house, located in the upper Tweed Valley in the Scottish Borders. The site of the hillfort known as Oliver Castle is to the north of the village of Tweedsmuir, although the site of the tower house is less ce ...

which was originally owned by the

Clan Fraser Clan Fraser is a Scottish clan of the Scottish Lowlands.Way, George and Squire, Romily. ''Collins Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia''. (Foreword by The Rt Hon. The Earl of Elgin KT, Convenor, The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs). Publishe ...

. When Sir Simon Fraser was killed in 1306, Craig Kingledoors became the property of the Hays, and the other lands the property of the Flemings. Chapel Kingledoors is named from a chapel dedicated to St Cuthbert. This had been a hermit's cell and as a chapel it was granted to the monks of Melrose along with the adjacent lands called then South Kingledoors. There was previously a

Peel tower Peel towers (also spelt pele) are small fortified keeps or tower houses, built along the English and Scottish borders in the Scottish Marches and North of England, mainly between the mid-14th century and about 1600. They were free-standin ...

a short way up the valley on the north side of the burn. Much of the land was later tenanted or owned by the Tweedies and a conflict with the Flemings in 1524 led to the death of the then Lord Fleming. Craig Kingledoors was acquired by William Hay of Drumelzier in 1686 and the Tweedies were proprietors of Chapel Kingledoors and one half of Over Kingledoors in 1712, which property William Hay acquired from the Tweedies before his death, and his son Alexander in 1736 had a Crown charter of the whole property. The estate then passed through a succession of owners including Sir George Montgomery of Macbiehill, Baronet and James Tweedie of Quarter who bought up many properties previously owned by the Tweedies. Kingledoors Burn which runs through the valley is a gravel bed stream which has provided a basis for several geographical research papers.

References

* J. W. Buchan and Rev. H. Paton A History of Peeblesshire 1925–7. * Peter C. Klingeman ''Gravel-bed Rivers in the Environment'' 1998 Water Resources Publication * R. J. Price Glacial Meltwater Channels in the Upper Tweed Drainage Basin The Geographical Journal, Vol. 126, No. 4 (Dec., 1960)

External links

Michael Forbes Tweedie ''The History of the Tweedie or Tweedy Family'' (1902)
Villages in the Scottish Borders Peel towers in the Scottish Borders {{Borders-geo-stub