Roberton is a small village in the
Scottish Borders area of
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, on the B711 and near to the A7, from
Hawick, from
Galashiels, and from
Langholm. It is situated by the
Ale Water, the
Alemoor Loch and the
Borthwick Water, and nearby are
Branxholme,
Broadhaugh,
Burnfoot and the
Craik Forest.
Borders poet
The Borders poet
Will H. Ogilvie (1869–1963) was born in
Kelso and died in nearby
Ashkirk. A cairn has been erected in his memory.
:The hill road to Roberton's a steep road to climb, But where your foot has crushed it, you can smell the scented thyme, And if your heart's a Border heart, look down to Harden Glen, And hear the blue hills ringing with the restless hoofs again...
Unveiled in August 1993, an identical cairn was also erected in
Bourke, New South Wales. The bronze was prised from the surface and stolen in August 2016 for
metal theft.
One of Ogilvie's 800+ poems included the six stanza ''The road to Roberton'':
:The hill road to Roberton: Ale Water at our feet,
:And grey hills and blue hills that melt away and meet,
:With cotton-flowers that wave to us and lone whaups that call,
:And over all the Border mist – the soft mist over all.
:When Scotland married England long, long ago,
:The winds spun a wedding-veil of moonlight and snow,
:A veil of filmy silver that sun and rain had kissed,
:And she left it to the Border in a soft grey mist.
A replacement cairn was installed at Harden Glen on the anniversary of Ogilvie's 150th birthday, in August 2019.
File:AU-NSW-Bourke-Bourke Poets Corner - OGILVIE cairn-2021.jpg, Stone cairn and bronze sculpture relating to Australian–Scottish poet Ogilvie, Bourke, NSW, Australia (2021).
File:AU-NSW-Bourke-Bourke Poets Corner - OGILVIE cairn book-2021.jpg, Ogilvie's stone cairn and bronze sculpture at Bourke (2021).
File:AU-NSW-Bourke-Bourke Poets Corner - OGILVIE cairn front bust-2021.jpg, Ogilvie's bronze, at Bourke (2021).
Borthwick Mains Symbol Stone
to the east of the village, in front of the house at Borthwick Mains, is a fish symbol-stone, possibly representing a salmon.
[Borthwick Mains Carved Stone](_blank)
RCHAMS The stone is high, and the figure of a fish is almost a metre long, with the tail downwards, cut into the stone with pecked lines.
It is similar to class 1
Pictish symbol stones of the 6th or 7th century, but its status is doubtful, and it may belong to a more recent period.
[Iain Fraser (2008) ''The Pictish symbol stones of Scotland'', page 8. RCHAMS]
See also
*
List of places in the Scottish Borders
''Map of places in the Scottish Borders compiled from this list'':See the list of places in Scotland for places in other counties.
This list of places in the Scottish Borders includes towns, villages, hamlet (place), hamlets, castles, golf courses ...
*
List of places in Scotland
*
List of Scottish writers
Notes
References
*Brooke, CJ (2000) Safe sanctuaries: security and defence in Anglo-Scottish border churches 1290–1690, Edinburgh. Held at RCAHMS: F.5.31.BRO
*THAS (1963) 'Sculptured stone found at Roberton'.
External links
RCAHMS record of Roberton (Roxburghshire), sometimes known as Kirk Borthwick ParishRoberton Primary School, presently the oldest school in the Scottish BordersIncident at Roberton Water Treatment WorksFlickr images of Hawick Common Riding, Roberton ride-out, 2009
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Villages in the Scottish Borders
Parishes in Roxburghshire