Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Goldielands

Goldielands, a Border peelhouse in Hawick parish, Roxburghshire, on the right bank of the Teviot, nearly opposite the influx of Borthwick Water, 2 miles SW of Hawick town. It is still inhabited, and one of the best preserved peels in Scotland-square, massive, and of venerable aspect, with almost as much masonry in its walls as open space within. Grose's Antiquities (1789) shows two towers; and the site of the one since demolished, close by the other, is still visible. Its lairds were descendants of Walter Scott (1532-96), natural son of the famous Sir Walter of Buccleuch; and, the last of them dying without male issue towards the close of the 17th century, the estate reverted to the Buccleuch family. The first of the line was probably the'Laird's Wat'of the Raid of the Reidswyre (1575); and his son it may have been that helped in the rescue of Kinmont Willie (1596).'Gaudilands,'too, is prominently mentioned in the ballad of Jamie Tetfer o'the ¥air -Dodhead; but it seems a baseless tradition that the last of its lairds was hanged for reiving over the gateway of his own tower.—Ord. Sur., sh. 17, 1864.


(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a Border peelhouse"   (ADL Feature Type: "towers")
Administrative units: Hawick ScoP       Roxburghshire ScoCnty

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