Tibbie Tamson and the Three Brethren

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Start of the ascent

This walk, the Three Brethren, was undertaken as part of our Christmas trip to the Scottish Borders in 2022. Starting at the Philiphaugh car park just outside Selkirk it ascends to three striking cairns.

But first we took a detour about half way up to visit Tibbie Tamson’s grave. She, allegedly, was a simple-minded woman from Selkirk who was caught stealing yarn in 1790. She was so distressed and embarrassed that she hanged herself. Because she was regarded as a criminal she could not be buried in consecrated ground, but fortunately some sympathetic townsfolk found a resting place for her on the side of the hill.

General view
Epitaph
Bi-centenary plaque

The grave has a central stone inscribed Tamson 1790 and two plaques. The first, undated, has the epitaph:

Where the curlews cry and wild birds fly

Tibbie thro’ the centuries lies

The stone is cracked yet bears the name

A witch, perhaps, but who’s to blame

The second marks the bicentenary of Tibbie’s death, and the grave is well tended, so it is nice to know that she is still remembered.

From here we descended back to the main path. Fabulous views.

Descending from Tibbie Tamson’s grave
Descending from Tibbie Tamson’s grave
Descending from Tibbie Tamson’s grave

Continuing to climb, the scenery became a bit bleaker, but the Brethren soon came into view.

Almost at the Brethren – looking back
The Brethren come into view

The Three Brethren are 1100 feet above sea level and around 10 feet high. They date back to the 16th century when they were built to mark the boundaries of the ancient burghs of Selkirk, Yair and Philiphaugh. They could also signify the meeting of three rivers below: the Tweed, the Yarrow and the Ettrick. John is attempting to use one as a shield from the wind.

The Three Brethren
John sheltering from the wind

The views were lovely but, as it was so cold at the top, we didn’t linger long before setting off down a different path to return to Philiphaugh.

View from the top
View from the top
Time to go back
Lone tree
Descent

Just before the carpark we accepted the invitation to sit on Kirsty Jean MacAskill’s bench. Dead before she reached 30 – there is a sad story here, but although I’ve found various other walkers online who stopped and wondered about her too, nobody seems to know who she was.

Kirsty Jean MacAskill’s bench
Kirsty Jean MacAskill’s bench

I’m getting out of sync with Jo and her Monday walks by publishing mine on a Friday. Nevertheless, I’m linking up. I have one more Borders walk to share then it’ll be on to Amsterdam. Quite a change!

Scotland, UK , , ,

51 Comments »

  1. The fence between the 3 Brethen doesn’t seem to be a usual fence. You captured the beauty of the views in your photos. The cold I will just have to imagine but I do know what that Scottish wind can feel like. Bernie

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  3. Pingback: Walks to find ……….. | sunshine and celandines

  4. That walk looks marvellous and I love the first line of Tibbies poem ‘ Where curlews cry and wild birds fly’ that’s beautiful.
    Do I spy a trig point amongst The Three Brethren?

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  5. Looks like a grand walk. Those Cairns are similar to the Nine Standards up on the Pennines near Kirkby Stephen. There’s other collections of cairns on other hills in the area too, including Wild Boar Fell. Must have taken some effort to build them

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  7. Good set of photographs. One of the first walks I ever did when I joined up with a local walking club in the early 1980s. Not been back since. Maybe time for a revisit. Bob. BSS.

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  15. Love the walk with those splendid views across the hills and the interest of the Tibbie Tamson plaques and the Three Brethren. The lonesome tree is a favourite!

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  17. Your image labelled ‘descent’ took me straight back to riding holidays based at Lauder, which must have been late 70s/early 80s!
    And Tibbie Tamson is a perfect name for a witch.

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  19. A sad story about Tibbie, but I’m glad she was given such a beautiful resting place and that her grave is still well looked-after. The views here look stunning and the Three Brethren very interesting – but cold!

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  20. Any day is a good day for a walk, Anabel, and this is a lovely one, though I appreciate that you would have had to keep moving to stay warm. How sad for Tibbie! We never have made it to Amsterdam, so I’ll enjoy following you around there too. Have a good weekend!.

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  21. That looks like a really lovely walk despite the temperatures. What a tragic story about Tibbie but it really is touching that people have cared for her gravesite for all of these years.

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