The first sight of Scotland

A little upstream from Berwick, 8km (5 miles) from the mouth of the river lies the point where the ancient bounds of Berwick town are pressed into action to provide the border between England and Scotland. Of course one may cross this formerly hotly disputed international frontier freely today, but dotted all along border roads are toll houses. A short walk down to the river from the B6461 Berwick to Kelso road and we reach the river.

Leaving England behind (on this bank at least)

Welcome to Scotland - this and the photo above taken from no-man's land by the Old Toll House on the B6461

A view downstream - there is a man fishing down there - it's legal to fish for salmon in England, but not so in Scotland - a small but visible difference between these two parts of Great Britain

The lower reaches of the Tweed are home to many birds - notably swans one of which you can just about make out with a magnifying glass in this picture!


A riverside view upstream, left bank is England, right bank is Scotland

Tweedmouth, Spittal & Berwick

A wet afternoon in Spittal - right at the mouth of the Tweed. The south bank of the Tweed here has always been in England although Berwick itself on the north bank has changed hands over a dozen times, the last time being in the 15th century.

Recently a proposal was made by tourist attracting quango types from the Scottish Borders to 'buy' Berwick back so it could be promoted in their literature. It failed.

So here we go - the start of the journey...

the mouth of the Tweed

standard jaded seafront amusement arcade on Spittal Promenade

Looking north over the river across Sandstell Point to the Lighthouse on the north Breakwater

Berwick & Tweedmouth Harbour - still a port albeit on a small scale. Bridges visible are the (from front to back) "Old Bridge" (road, built 1610), the "New Bridge" (road, built 1925) & the "Royal Border Bridge" (rail, built 1857-60)

Berwick Town - with the Town Hall Tower the highest building in it.

The River

The River Tweed is 156km (97 miles) long (some say slightly longer, some say shorter - it depends on exactly where the mouth is judged to be). By world standards it is not a particularly long river. It is the 11th longest in Great Britain and the 4th longest in Scotland, only the Tay, the Spey and the Clyde are said to be longer (only just in the case of the Clyde and depending on where the mouth of the Clyde is judged to be of course).

The River Tweed drains almost the entire Scottish Borders region, and has a catchment area of around 5000km² (1900 square miles). It rises at Tweed's Well in the Lowther Hills above Moffat and flows down to the North Sea at Berwick-upon-Tweed passing though many notable Borders towns such as Peebles, Selkirk, Melrose, Kelso, Coldstream & Berwick. It passes through varied countryside on it's journey from the high moors and steep-sided valleys of Tweeddale to the wide rolling plains of the Merse.

For the first 120km (75 miles) or so the river is entirely Scottish (both banks in Scotland), then for 30km (18 miles) it forms the border between England and Scotland. For the last 8km (5 miles) to the sea, both banks lie in England, entirely as a consequence of Berwick being finally taken for England in 1482.

This journey will start at the mouth of the river and journey upstream. It won't cover every inch of the river and may not cover every single item of note along it - if there is somewhere you'd like to see covered that I've missed or that I've not got to please let me know.