Yarrow Water

The Yarrow Water is a tributary of the Ettrick Water, which is itself a tributary of the Tweed and renowned for its high quality trout and salmon fishing. The valley through which it flows was the birthplace of the explorer Mungo Park and has inspired several well known songs and poems.

Its traditions and folk tales were also well documented by Sir Walter Scott, who spent part of his childhood nearby, and in later life returned to live in the vicinity at Abbotsford House, near Melrose. Yarrow Water flows spectacularly from its source at St Mary’s Loch, falling 405 feet on its 12-mile journey to join the Ettrick, passing through the settlements of Yarrow Feus, Yarrow and Yarrowford.

The two rivers converge near to the site of the 1645 Battle of Philiphaugh just west of Selkirk at a place called The Meetings Pool at the eastern edge of the Duke of Buccleuch’s Bowhill Estate. It was while working at Blackhouse Farm in the Yarrow Valley that another famous son of the area, James Hogg, who came to be known as ‘The Ettrick Shepherd’, came to the attention of Scott. The impressive ruins of Newark Castle, held by Clan Douglas in the 15th century, lie on the right bank of the river opposite Foulshiels, where Mungo Park was born.