History & Heritage

At it’s head stands the 16th century birthplace of ‘Auld Wat of Harden’ the infamous Border Reiver.

Further down the Ale Water the village of Ashkirk was home, for his last 45 years, to the poet William H. Ogilvie (1869 – 1963).  He was equally famed in Australia as a Bush Balladist as in Scotland, where he was known as the Border Poet. 

In the valley’s centre lies ‘Ancient Riddell’s Fair Domain’ immortalised by Sir Walter Scott in his epic first poem of 1805  ‘The Lay of the Last Minstrel’.

The Anglian villages of Lilliesleaf and Midlem nestle close by.   Lilliesleaf was home to the poet William Knox (1789 – 1825) who penned ‘Mortality’, Abraham Lincoln’s favourite poem which the American President often recited.  Midlem provided a 14th century base for the Knights Templar (of Crusades fame) who were reputed to have helped Robert the Bruce win the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

At the base of the Ale Water is the village of Ancrum, the place of residence in the 13th century of William de Bondington, the Bishop of Glasgow and Lord Chancellor of Scotland from 1231-33 under Alexander II of Scotland.