Whiteadder Water is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

East Lothian East Lothian (; sco, East Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Ear) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In 1975, the histo ...

and

Berwickshire Berwickshire ( gd, Siorrachd Bhearaig) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in south-eastern Scotland, on the English border. Berwickshire County Council existed from 1890 until 1975, when the area became part of th ...

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 ...

. It also flows for a very short distance through

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

before joining 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 ...

. In common with the

headwaters The headwaters of a river or stream is the farthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or downstream confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. It is also known as a river's source. Definition The ...

of the

Biel Water The Biel Water is a river running through the Biel Estate in Biel, East Lothian. It runs for 4.5 kilometres from the Luggate Burn and the Whittinghame Water, via Stenton, Biel House, West Barns, and finally to Belhaven Bay with its rather unusu ...

it rises on the low hillside of Clints Dod () in the Lammermuir Hills, just ESE of Whitecastle Hillfort and south-east of the village of Garvald.

Etymology

''Adder'' may be derived from

Brittonic Brittonic or Brythonic may refer to: *Common Brittonic, or Brythonic, the Celtic language anciently spoken in Great Britain *Brittonic languages, a branch of the Celtic languages descended from Common Brittonic *Britons (Celtic people) The Br ...

''*ador, *edir'' or

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''edre'', possible ancient

hydronym A hydronym (from el, ὕδρω, , "water" and , , "name") is a type of toponym that designates a proper name of a body of water. Hydronyms include the proper names of rivers and streams, lakes and ponds, swamps and marshes, seas and oceans. As a ...

ic terms derived from an Indo-European formation meaning "a watercourse, a channel" (compare

River Etherow The River Etherow is a river in northern England, and a tributary of the River Goyt. Although now passing through South Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Greater Manchester, it historically formed the ancient county boundary between Cheshire and Derb ...

). The possibility of the name deriving from Old English ''ǣdre'', "a vein" ( Anglian ''ēdre''), or ''*ǣdre'', meaning "quickly" is objected on the grounds that these would have maintained the long initial vowel in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and Scots. Also suggested is derivation from

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

''fad dûr'', meaning "long water". though the Gaelic was never spoked in the Scottish southeast.

Course

The stream wends its way south east for approximately where it joins with the Faseny Water to form the Whiteadder Reservoir created in 1968, which supplies most of the towns of East Lothian (including

Cockenzie power station Cockenzie power station was a coal-fired power station in East Lothian, Scotland. It was situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, near the town of Cockenzie and Port Seton, east of the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. The station dom ...

) and Berwickshire, with water. From there, crossing into

it runs alongside the

B6355 road New B roads are numbered routes in Great Britain of lesser importance than A roads. See the article Great Britain road numbering scheme The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in ...

to Ellemford where it joins the

Dye Water The Dye Water ( gd, Uisge Dhàidh) is a river in the Lammermuir Hills in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. It rises in the Hope Hills, continues along the East Lothian boundary, a mile north east of Seenes Law, then east to Longformacus. ...

and further on at Abbey St. Bathans, the Monynut Water. By this point having become a much larger body of flow, the Whiteadder meanders across Eastern parts of the Merse passing the communities of Preston, Chirnside, Allanton. Here at Allanton the Whiteadder joins with its antonymic counterpart the

Blackadder Water Blackadder Water () is a river in Berwickshire in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, forming part of the River Tweed system. It reached 2.84m at Mouthbridge, which was its highest level ever recorded on Tuesday 22 October 2002 at 2:45pm. Et ...

. The river proceeds by Foulden,

Edrington Edrington is a medieval estate occupying the lower part of Mordington parish in Berwickshire, Scottish Borders, Scotland, west of Berwick-upon-Tweed. From probably the 14th century, if not earlier, a castle occupied the steep hill above the ...

, and Paxton, it crosses into

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, before joining the

, just north of

East Ord East Ord is a village in Northumberland, England about south west of Berwick Upon Tweed. It lies on the south bank of the River Tweed adjacent to the A1 Road. History The village was originally called Ord, with Middle Ord and West Ord bei ...

, a suburb of

Berwick-upon-Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...

Notability

For those with fishing permits, the Whiteadder provides recreational

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

and

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

. There are a number of angling clubs offering affordable access to this lovely river including the Whiteadder Angling Association (trout) and Berwick and District Angling Association (salmon, sea trout and wild brown trout). The Whiteadder is the home of the oldest Angling Club in the world verified by the Guinness Book of Records, Ellem Angling Club, established in 1829. Membership is by invitation only. The regalia of the club is on display at Paxton House in Berwickshire. It is also the site of Ninewells, the childhood home of

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment philo ...

. The lowermost section of the Whiteadder is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) by virtue of its water crowfoot, salmon,

lamprey Lampreys (sometimes inaccurately called lamprey eels) are an ancient extant lineage of jawless fish of the order Petromyzontiformes , placed in the superclass Cyclostomata. The adult lamprey may be characterized by a toothed, funnel-like s ...

and moulting

mute swan The mute swan (''Cygnus olor'') is a species of swan and a member of the waterfowl family Anatidae. It is native to much of Eurosiberia, and (as a rare winter visitor) the far north of Africa. It is an introduced species in North America, home ...

References

{{authority control Rivers of the Scottish Borders Rivers of East Lothian Rivers of Northumberland Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Berwickshire and Roxburgh Tributaries of the River Tweed Environment of East Lothian Environment of Berwickshire 1Whiteadder

Etymology

Course

Notability

See also

References