Selkirkshire

Statue of Sir Walter Scott, sheriff of the county, outside old courthouse in Selkirk.

In the 1st Century AD Selkirk formed part of the lands of the native people who hunted it rather than settled there. Neither the Romans, Angles, or the Saxons cleared much of the forestry there and for centuries Selkirk was known for its forest coverage. Indeed, an alternative name for the county was Ettrick Forest. Under the Scottish kings the forest was regarded as Royal. Despite this it was not until the reign of James V that sheriffs were appointed to administer the county on the Crown's behalf. During the military occupation of Scotland by Edward I of England, the forest was granted to the Earl of Gloucester.

Selkirk Market Place: the tall building on the right is the Bank of Scotland Buildings, the former offices of Selkirkshire County Council

In the Middle Ages the area that would become Selkirkshire formed part of the province of Tweeddale. The origins of the shire are obscure, but sometime around the twelfth century the area of Tweeddale was divided into two sheriffdoms: Peeblesshire to the north and Selkirkshire or Ettrick Forest to the south.[1] The first recorded sheriff of Selkirkshire was Andrew de Synton, who was appointed by William the Lion (d. 1214).[2] Synton in the parish of Ashkirk, just east of the village centre, was an enclave of Selkirkshire surrounded by Roxburghshire.[3]

Later, the Earl of Pembroke assumed the hereditary sheriffdom. Under and after King Robert the Bruce, the Earls of Douglas, and later Earls of Angus administered the county. In 1501 John Murray (d. 1510), laird of Falahill, was made sheriff of Selkirkshire and on 30 Nov. 1509 he obtained a grant of the hereditary sheriffdom of Selkirkshire.[4] His descendant Sir James Murray was deprived of office in 1681 for being remiss in punishing conventicles, but at the Glorious Revolution was raised to the session bench as Lord Philiphaugh and reinstated as sheriff. His son John Murray (died 1753) was the hereditary Sheriff of Selkirk from 1708 to 1734, when he was returned unopposed as MP for Selkirkshire, having resigned his hereditary sheriffdom to one of his sons.[5] When in 1747 the heritable jurisdictions were abolished, Murray of Philiphaugh received £4,000 in compensation. The Sheriff-Deputes, previously appointed by the hereditary sheriffs, were now appointed by the crown and acted in place of the hereditary sheriffs [6] One such sheriff of Selkirkshire was Sir Walter Scott who was appointed Sheriff-Depute in 1799, an office he held until his death in 1832.[7]

County Buildings, Ettrick Terrace, Selkirk

Coat of arms of Selkirkshire County Council.

Selkirkshire County Council was created in 1890 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, which established elected county councils across Scotland. The 1889 Act also instigated a review of boundaries, particularly where burghs straddled county boundaries. The boundary review for Selkirkshire concluded in 1891 and made a number of mostly minor changes. The most significant change was that the burgh of Galashiels was brought entirely within Selkirkshire, where it had previously been partly in Roxburghshire.[8] Selkirkshire County Council met at the County Buildings on Ettrick Terrace in Selkirk, which had been built in 1870 as a sheriff court and meeting place for the Commissioners of Supply, the main administrative body for the county prior to the creation of the county council.[9][10][11] The council's staff were based at the Bank of Scotland Buildings in the Market Place in Selkirk.[12][13]

The county council was abolished in 1975 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, which reorganised local government in Scotland into upper-tier regions and lower-tier districts. Selkirkshire became part of the Borders region and part of the Ettrick and Lauderdale district.[14]

At the time of the local government reorganisation in 1975, the posts of lord-lieutenant of Selkirkshire and lord-lieutenant of Roxburghshire were both held by John Scott, 9th Duke of Buccleuch. The new district of Ettrick and Lauderdale and the neighbouring district of Roxburgh became nominally separate lieutenancy areas, although the Duke of Buccleuch was appointed to both positions, effectively continuing the pre-1975 arrangement.[15] When local government was reorganised again in 1996, the two lieutenancies were formally united into a single lieutenancy area called Roxburgh, Ettrick and Lauderdale.[16]

Folk ballads written of the county commemorate the Battle of Philiphaugh in 1645, the 'Dowie Dens' at Yarrow and Tibbie Shiels at St Mary's Loch.

St Mary's Loch near Selkirk from the west bank

Selkirkshire is a rural county, with a handful of small settlements set within hill and forest country. It forms part of the Southern Uplands geographical region. The Ettrick Water and Yarrow Water, both tributaries of the river Tweed, flow through the county. The most prominent loch is St Mary's Loch (including the Loch of the Lowes), with smaller lochs being found east of this such as Akermoor Loch, Shaws Under Loch, Shaws Upper Loch, Halemoor Loch, Alemoor Reservoir, Clearburn Loch, Kingside Loch, Crooked Loch and Windylaw Loch. The traditional highest point (county top) of Selkirkshire prior to border changes in the 20th century was Dun Rig, with a height of 744 metres (2,441 ft) above sea level.

The Borders Railway connects Galashiels and Tweedbank with Edinburgh. Closed for many years, this line re-opened in 2015.[18] There are also buses to Berwick-Upon-Tweed and Carlisle operated by Borders Buses.

Selkirkshire was historically divided into civil parishes. There were originally nine parishes; Ashkirk, Bowside, Buccleuch (or Rankilburn), Duchoire, Ettrick, Kirkhope, Lindean, St Mary's (or St Mary of the Lowes) and Selkirk. There have been a number of changes since the medieval period:

• Caddonfoot was created in 1898 from the part of the parish of Stow of Wedale that lay within Selkirkshire.
• Galashiels was formed by the union of two ancient parishes, Bowside and Lindean.
• The parish of Rankilburn or Buccleuch was suppressed and united to Yarrow c. 1600, then transferred to Ettrick 1650.[19]
• The ancient parishes of Duchoire, St Mary's and Kirkhope were united to form the parish of Yarrow; Kirkhope was then separated from Yarrow in 1852.[20]

Population of the county by Civil Parish, according to the latest census (2011):[21][22]

Civil parishes of Selkirkshire

The population of the towns in the county (in 2011):[23]

• Galashiels - 14,994 (of which 12,893 in Selkirkshire) [24]
• Selkirk - 5,784

Historical population of the county as returned by the census was as follows:[25]

• 1801: 5,889
• 1811: 6,637
• 1821: 6,833
• 1841: 7,990
• 1851: 9,809
• 1861: 10,449
• 1871: 19,651
• 1881: 26,346
• 1891: 28,068
• 1901: 23,356
• 1911: 24,601
• 1921: 22,607
• 1931: 22,711
• 1951: 21,729
• 1961: 21,055[26]
• 1971: 20,868 [27]
• 1991: 17,456[28]
• 2001: 17,757[29]
• 2011: 18,267[21]

Galashiels

Typical Selkirkshire scenery, near Yarrowford

• Boleside
• Bowhill
• Broadmeadows
• Caddonfoot
• Clovenfords
• Ettrick
• Ettrickbridge
• Galashiels (partly in Roxburghshire prior to 1891)
• Philiphaugh
• Roberton
• Selkirk
• Yarrow
• Yarrowford

• James Hogg
• List of places in the Scottish Borders
• List of places in Scotland
• Craik Forest
• Wauchope Forest
• List of forests in the United Kingdom

The archeology and historic buildings of the county were documented in 1957 by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments in Scotland. There is also a History of Selkirkshire by T. Craig Brown, published in 1886.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Selkirkshire.

Wikisource has the text of the 1905 New International Encyclopedia article "Selkirkshire".

• "Selkirkshire" from A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland by Samuel Lewis, 1846 (British History Online)
• Entries on Selkirkshire from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland by Frances Groome(1882-4) and the Gazetteer of the British Isles by John Bartholomew (1887) (Vision of Britain)
• EttrickForestArchers.co.uk
• RCAHMS record for Ettrick Forest or Selkirkshire
• SCRAN: Bowling champions in front of club house at Ettrick Forest Bowling Club, Selkirk
• The Borders Forest Trust
• Gazetteer for Scotland; Ettrick Forest
• Jstor: A newly discovered map of Ettrick Forest by Robert Gordon of Straloch
• The Ettrick Forest Tartan
• James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd

55°30′N 3°00′W