The Tweedie Passion (16 page)

There is no Lethan Valley in the Scottish Borders, but there is a Manor Valley, on which I based the location. The topography is much as I described, and at one time there were ten peel towers dotted along the valley floor. The remains of three survive, two ruined and one nearly intact.

There was a feud between the Tweedies and the Veitches, who held neighbouring lands near the Tweed. As with all Border feuds, there was bloodshed and murder involved and nobody was quite sure how it started. My own account is entirely fictional. The story of the Spirit of the Tweed is part of local folklore, although I added a slight twist.

The Armstrongs of Liddesdale were indeed one of the most feared riding – or reiving – families of the Border. They were not a surname to cross: names such as Ill Will Armstrong, Kinmont Willie and Johnnie Armstrong are still remembered in song and ballad.

The Wolf Craigs exists as I have described, although I shifted the location from the Pentland Hills, where I courted my own love.

The Nine Stane Rig and the associated folklore also exists, exactly where I have placed it. It is a fascinating, uncanny place which can be visited. Not all can sense the atmosphere, but for those with the feelings it is not a place to miss. Take a copy of Scott's
Border Ballads
when you visit and listen for the ghosts.

The lifestyle along the Border was much as I have described. It was a lawless frontier where raid and feud ruled, and it seems that cynical kings in both Edinburgh and London preferred that: they used the border counties as a buffer between their respective countries, and the wild men and women of the hills and valleys were always useful in time of war. Only when King James VI of Scotland took over the English throne was there a hope of peace in the old Border, and when that happened in 1603, a sort of peace descended. Yet there can still be an uneasy atmosphere in the southernmost counties of Scotland and it is best not to push these men and women too hard, lest the old, not-quite-dormant spirit comes out again and the call 'A Tweedie!' or 'An Armstrong!' echoes from the long green hills.

Helen Susan Swift

July 2016

• Dark Voyage
  
• The Handfasters
  
• Women of Scotland
  

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