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Liddesdale; The Lost Towers of the Elliots. Roxburghshire, Scottish Borders

Liddesdale, Sites of Former Towers of the Elliots

Liddesdale; The Lost Towers of the Elliots. Roxburghshire, Scottish Borders

The valley stretches from the junction of the rivers Liddel and Esk in the south for about twenty miles to the north east where the Liddel rises on bleak Windy Knowe. Liddesdale, “the cockpit of the Border” is astride the frontier in its lower reaches and in the past was home to an unruly and lawless population.

The strongholds and towers of the Reivers, that once abounded in the valley, have disappeared now almost without trace. It is possible to trace the sites and in some cases fragmentary remains of some of the lost towers that are mentioned in the Border Ballads and so often in documentary sources.

The towers of the Elliots were mainly clustered in upper Liddesdale above Newcastleton or Copshaw Holm as it was previously known. Here stood the famous Prickenhaugh tower, stronghold of the Elliot chiefs.

There were the towers of Little Jock Elliot of the Park, of Robin of Redheugh, Will of Lariston, Martin of Braidley and Archie of Thirlshope, but nothing of these remains now to remind us of the days of the Reivers.

Location:  Scottish Borders, Roxburghshire, Liddesdale
OS sheet: 80 GR: 575978

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