Smailholm ( sco, Smailhowm) is a small village in the
historic county of
Roxburghshire
Roxburghshire or the County of Roxburgh ( gd, Siorrachd Rosbroig) is a historic county and registration county in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. It borders Dumfriesshire to the west, Selkirkshire and Midlothian to the north-west, and Berw ...
in south-east
Scotland. It is at
and straddles the B6397
Gordon to
Kelso road. The village is almost equidistant from both, standing northwest of the
abbey town of Kelso. Since local government reorganisation in Scotland in the early 1970s, Smailholm has been part of the
Scottish Borders Council.
History
Smailholm, in keeping with most of the south eastern part of Scotland, was part of the ancient
Kingdom of Northumbria and was named from the
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 ...
language as ''Smael Ham'', meaning "narrow village". In early
mediaeval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
times, the village was larger than it is now and was divided into three separate parts, named East Third, West Third and Overtown.
Sir Walter Scott, as a boy, was a regular visitor to his grandfather's farm at Sandyknowe.
Captain Cook's mother Jean was born in Smailholm and married his father in Smailholm Church. Before the end of the 18th century, there were two schools in the village, a parochial school and a private establishment at Sandyknowe.
St. Cuthbert
Cuthbert of Lindisfarne ( – 20 March 687) was an Anglo-Saxon saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in the Kingdom of N ...
is believed to have been born at Wrangham, a long disappeared village at New Smailholm. King
Edward I of England passed through Smailholm in 1303 on his march to
Lauder.
Smailholm Church
Church
David de Oliford was granted the church and manor of Smailholm in the 12th century by King
David I of Scotland. De Oliford subsequently granted the church and its
tithes to the
Benedictine monks of
Coldingham Priory who held the church until the
Scottish Reformation in 1560. Smailholm Kirk avoided demolition after the Reformation, and parts of an early Norman structure can still be seen in the
chancel. The present church has had major renovation and renewal in 1632 and 1820. The church contains fine stained glass windows from 1907 commemorating Sir Walter Scott. Some of the ministers in the early years of the reformed church include David Forsyth, Archibald Oswald and James Hunter. An archaeological watching brief was carried out in the church graveyard during Summer 2022 by Border Reivers Archaeology Unit.
Smailholm Tower
Smailholm Tower in the winter
Smailholm Tower, one in a string of Borders keeps guarding the
Tweed valley, was built not later than the early 15th century, when it was held by the powerful
Pringle family, four of whom were killed at the
Battle of Flodden in 1513. The tower passed, in 1745, to the Scotts of Harden, but they left the structure in 1800. The tower fell into a perilous condition but was partially restored in the 1980s and is now in the care of
Historic Scotland.
In popular culture
* Smailholm appeared in the third case of ''Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator'', in which the titular hero investigates the mysterious ritual murder of two local girls, and discovers a shocking secret about the town à la ''
The Wicker Man''.
* It features in the book by C.L. Williams titled Smailhom, in which thirteen-year-old Wynn discovers a miniature village hidden close to Smailholm Tower.
See also
*
Brotherstone Hill
Brotherstone Hill is a hill near St. Boswells and the Eildon Hills in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, with two standing stones from the megalithic age, on the summit of Brotherstone Hill, at a height of 418 metres. The stones differ in he ...
*
List of places in the Scottish Borders
*
List of places in Scotland
References
www.smailholm.bordernet.co.uk/
External links and further reading
Smailholm village websiteRCAHMS/Canmore record for the Manor of SmailholmRCAHMS/Canmore record for Smailholm churchRCAHMS record for Parish of SmailholmSCRAN image: Smailholm tower* Statistical Accounts of Scotland
* Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland edited by Francis Groome
More photographs Geograph images at grid reference NT6436
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Villages in the Scottish Borders
Parishes in Roxburghshire
