A story from the Scottish Borders

Did I ever tell you the story of Muckle Mou'd Meg? Muckle is big while mou', pronounced moo with a long oo, is mouth.



The story goes that one dark night young Willie Scott and some friends set out from Aikwood in Ettrickdale on a raid, determined to steal some cattle from Sir Gideon Murray of Elibank in Tweeddale. Unfortunately for the young men Sir Gideon was forewarned, so when Scott and his friends approached Elibank Sir Gideon and his men were lying in wait for them. After a bloody skirmish young Willie was captured and flung into the Elibank dungeon

Sir Gideon's plan was to hang the young man the very next morning, but Lady Murray, knowing that the lad was of a good family, suggested to her husband that Willie be given a choice - hanging.... or marriage to Meg their far from beautiful youngest daughter with the long thin nose and big mouth.

Next morning Willie was brought from his prison to the courtyard where a gallows had been set up. The choice of the gallows or a wife was given to him, but on seeing Meg, with youthful vigour he decided he would rather die than have such a wife as her. However, as he was dragged towards the gallows the boy had a change of heart and agreed that he would indeed marry Meg, despite her looks!

So the couple were married and they say they led a very happy life together, having a large family from which Sir Walter Scott, the author of the Waverley Novels, was descended. Despite her lang neb (nose) and muckle mou', Meg was gentle and kind, and made Willie Scott a wonderful wife.

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Elibank tower was built high on the hillside on the south side of the River Tweed, on the way between Peebles and Galashiels. Like many of the Border dwellings they were built as fortified towers to protect the lairds and their families as well as their servants from attack. In that era this was very necessary. A string of towers stretched along valleys each one in view of the next so that the warning flames of a beacon at the top of the tower could be seen by the next and thus passed on along the valley. Today Elibank and many others of the great tower houses are in a ruinous state and dangerous to explore, but Elibank's walls can still be seen in the castle's prominent position on its hillside.

Opposite, on the north side of the valley is an area that has been made into a carpark and picnic site. Some years ago a statue, carved from a single piece of burr elm, of Meg and Willie Scott dancing together was erected at the picnic site with Meg looking towards the tower where her namesake once lived. It is very beautiful and cleverly carved to show off some of the burrs as Willie's lace cuffs or flounces of Meg's skirt.

Talk again soon.