On Tuesday we set out to find the Gair Tima which the Laidlaws have lived in over time. When we got there we found a man, Martin Bray, who had owned it, but had sold it and now lived in the cattle shed next door, renovated of course. He was a mine of information about the Gair Tima, beside the Tima water,
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| Tima Water |
and the Laidlaws that lived in it.
Once we had introduced ourselves he became really interested and friendly. He asked us into his house for a cup of tea and proceeded to provide us with a potted history of the Gair and the Laidlaws. It was an amazing experience. We swapped email addresses and he has promised to send us some the information that he has collected on his computer.
The building was built by the Duke Of Buccleugh in 1760 who owned large estates all round about, and still does. He had also built a twin to the Gair but further up, called .....
Laidlaws lived in Gair Tima as tenants until the Duke decided to sell it at some stage and he sold it to a Laidlaw - not sure who.
The genealogy shows Andrew and Agnes living (tenant farmers?) at Glenkerry up the valley from Gair towards Ettrick before 1760 and some children born there.
From 1760 on children are born at Gair Tima.
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| Gair Tima |
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| Martin Bray & Me |
He also said that the last wolf in Scotland had been killed in 1705 just up the road at a place called "Wolf's Cleugh"
From there we went a little further down the road to the James Hogg monument.
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| James Hogg's monument |
James Hogg, otherwise known as "The Ettrick Shepherd" lived in a cottage on the site of the monument. Then we turned around and drove back up the road and turned off down to the Ettrick Church to where James Hogg was buried as well as about 21 Laidlaws!
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| The road up to Ettrick Church |
James Hogg's mother was Margaret Laidlaw married to Robert Hogg. The church was a lovely old building with "craw stepped gables" and a tower.
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| Front of the Ettrick Church |
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| Craw stepped gable |
There were a multitude of really old gravestones around with more Laidlaws than I have seen in one place ever before.
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| Ettrick Church and tower |
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| William Laidlaw's tombstone |
We spent quite a bit of time looking around and then got back in the car to make our way round to St. Mary's Loch to find Hogg's statue
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| Text on the statue |
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| James Hogg's statue |
and Tibbie Shiels Inn.
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| Tibbie Shiels Inn |
Beside the statue there was a copy of some of his more well known poems
and a fine example of a "dry stane dyke".
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| A "dry stane dyke" |
Later that evening Gordon and Hilary took us out to dinner at The Gordons Arms, a nice little pub just down the road.
Gordon said that a previous owner had tried to paint it a terracotta colour but it turned out to be more like pink. The locals soon named it the Gay Gordon!
He also said that when the current owner knows he is coming back from Norway to Yarrow and is going to be late, he stays up so that Gordon can knock on the door at 10:30pm ish, be let in and have a glass of wine. Hilary comes down too!
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| The Gordon Arms on the A 708 |
A great night was had by all, and then we got home Gordon produced some DVDs of "Para Handy and the Vital Spark" by Neil Munroe that he had, and then proceeded to copy them for me!
