A HISTORY OF PEEBLESSHIREKilbucho, Broughton and GlenholmThis parish includes three old parishes, Broughton, Glenholm, and Kilbucho, which were united for ecclesiastical purposes in 1794. In length it extends to about nine and a half miles and in breadth to about three and a half miles. It is bounded on the north by Kirkurd, and on the east and north-east by Stobo, on the south-east and south by Drumelzier, on the west by Coulter (Lanarkshire), and on the north-west by Skirling.The area is 19,797 acres. The population (1921 census) is 739 and the rental, 1926–7, £20,868 14s. 9d. This is one of the most beautiful districts in the county. Entering the parish from the north by the highroad between Edinburgh and Moffat at the Kaimrig End, or as it is more frequently called, the Ruchill End (probably a corruption of rough-hill-end), the view is down the valley of the Broughton burn, and in the distance are the mountains of the upper Tweed and the massive outline of Broad Law. On the left is a range of hills, Pyked Stane (1872 feet) Greenlaw, Cloverhill, Ratchill and others, dividing Broughton from the parish of Stobo; on the right is a lower range dividing it from Skirling. Down this valley goes the highroad, crossing the Broughton burn at that spot called of old Clashieford (a suitable name in those days when roads went through streams and not over them on bridges), and three mile further on the beautifully wooded village of Broughton is reached, where the scenery becomes more pastoral, with sheep and cattle grazing in green meadows. At the village the highroad is joined by the road from Biggar, and a smaller road breaks off to the left across the burn and winds its over the ridge of Dreva hill to the Tweed valley and Peebles. A quarter of a mile beyond the village the road crosses the Biggar Water (into which the Broughton burn flows), and that is the boundary of the old parish of Broughton. Now we are in Kilbucho, but the road only cuts through a narrow corner of it. Here is the railway station, the post office, the Parish and UF Churches and about half-a-dozen modern dwelling-houses. Here also is the Gala Plantin at the foot of the Hill o' Men (or Helmend as the Ordnance maps, without much reason, have it), where the gallows stood in the days of old and the baron of Kilbucho dispensed his summary justice. Calzeat or Calzeat Clibanum is the name of this part of the parish, strange words the derivation of which is obscure. Another road which comes from Biggar and the west country through the old parish of Kilbucho joins the main road at the post office. The present farmhouses of Calzeat, beside the Parish Church, was an inn in the beginning of last century. After passing the churches the road enters the old parish of Glenholm, and here the hillsides and meadowlands are beautifully wooded. This is the estate of Rachan and Whitslade on which successive proprietors have spent much care and money. The modern house of Whitslade stands high up on the right-hand side of the road, and on the other side is the mansion house of Rachan, at ease among its lawns and woods and meadows. The road now crosses the Holms Water, and there is here a small village (Rachan Mill) from which the road to Peebles by Drumelzier breaks off to the left. Further on, the road up the valley of Glenholm leads off on the right. The road rises gently to cross the ridge, passes on the right the old ruined tower of Wrae, one of the strong holds of the Tweedies, and descends through the woods of Mossfennan to the valley of the Tweed, which divides Glenholm from the parish of Drumelzier for about four miles. Mossfennan had its tower in the old days, and there is a reference to it in the ballad 'The King rode round the Merecleuch Head, The scenery becomes wilder, the valley narrows, and high hills crowd down from their narrow glens. When the sky is blue and the sun is shining and the links of Tweed are glittering, it is a scene of quiet peace and beauty; when the mist comes down and the hills grow dark with rain then the Tweed flows the colour of lead and becomes the wan water of the ballads. The road now passes out of the parish, on its way to the head of Tweed and Moffat, after crossing the Logan burn near to that famous spot called Lincumdoddie, where Willie Wastle dwelt, who had the misfortune to have an extremely unprepossessing wife, whose face 'wad fyle the Logan Water'. |
The highroad which we have been on shows us little of the glen of Holms Water, which is the main part of Glenholm, practically nothing of Kilbucho, and nothing at all of the Kilbucho burn. To see Glenholm we must leave the highroad at Rachan Mill and take the road leading up the side of Holms Water. On the left is the Duckpool, which has a curious history; on the right, two or three cottages called Heughbrae. Further on is Holmsmill, and then the old Glenholm churchyard with the remains of the church, and on the hillside opposite, the lands and house of Quarter. For four miles beyond that the glen extends. 'A delightful pastoral vale,' the Rev. Hamilton Paul called it, which describes Rachan well enough, but is no kind of description for upper Glenholm, for it is the high surrounding hills, Cardon, Chapelgill and Coulter Fell, steep and bare, that dominate the scene. At the head is Glenwhappen Rig (2262 feet), from which a narrow ridge runs down to Holm Nick, the watershed between Glenholm and Coulter, and then rises to Coulter Fell (2454). On the left is a series of hills dividing the Holms Water from the Kingledoors burn (in the parish of Drumelzier), and on the right the buttressed heights of Chapelgill (2282) and Cardon (2218). Down the narrow glen thus formed the Holms Water flows, rising in haste and falling in pools from the gigantic shoulders of Glenwhappen Rig and Coulter Fell, then winding its way quietly past Glenkirk, the old home of the Porteous family, Glencotho, Glenhigton, Cardon, receiving smaller hill streams in its course, and finally through the wooded policies of Rachan, to find its rest in the Biggar Water. There are many hill glens like Glenholm in the Borders. They are all beautiful, but Glenholm takes pride of place, not because, of the Holms Water, lovely as it is, but because of a certain grace of setting. It is perfect in form, and Cardon itself has a classic dignity of outline which puts it in a place apart from other hills. While Glenholm and Broughton are definitely in the Borderland, Kilbucho is on the fringe, and the scenery there, except up Kilbucho burn itself, is more pastoral. The Biggar Water rises in the moors above Biggar and flows to Broughton through a level strath, and so level is it that, as Armstrong cannot help observing, 'were the project of general service, the course of Clyde might easily be diverted... to influx its contents with Tweed.' It is said that in great floods it is in fact possible for fish to pass from Tweed to Clyde by the flooded meadows round Biggar. The road from Broughton which leaves the highroad at the post office, runs up the valley for about two miles, with the railway and Biggar Water on the right, and on the left a ridge of hills, beginning with the Hill o' Men and ending with Cardon, which divides Kilbucho from Glenholm. At Kilbucho Place (the old Kilbucho House, the home of the Dicksons, the road splits into two, the one on the left going up the side of the Kilbucho burn, the other crossing the burn and continuing up the Biggar Water to Hartree and Biggar. Taking the former, for we can return by the latter, we reach Kilbucho Mains, on which a commodious dwelling-house has been built of late years, and then the farm of Blendewing and Raw. Here Cardon again dominates the scene. Beyond Blendewing is Mitchelhill, where the old church of the parish stood, and opposite are the farms of Goseland and Howslack. The road now ascends sharply to cross the ridge at the county boundary, known as Corscryne from which looking back there is a fine panorama of the whole glen. To the left of Corscryne is the farm of the Shaws or Southside, and on the right a small road descends abruptly to join the road to Hartree and Biggar which we left at Kilbucho Place. At the junction is the farm of Knowehead, to the left the farm of Thriepland, and in front Hartree House and its policies, for long the home of another branch of the Dicksons. On the hillside above Thriepland is a large hollow known as the 'hole abune Thriepland,' the subject of an old rhyme Glenkirk and Glencotho, Returning by the road towards Broughton, we follow the course of the Biggar Water, passing the farms of Pyetknowe, Burnfoot, Bamflat, Cleuch and Parkgatestone, and so reach the Kilbucho burn again at the farm of Kilbucho Place. With the aid of extant records an attempt will be made to tell the story of the lands in the united parish, and after that an outline of the ecclesiastical history will be given. Reproduced from 'A History of Peeblesshire' by JW Buchan and Rev H Paton, 1925–27, Jackson, Wylie and Co of Glasgow |
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