5. Crown of Scotland .
At the southern end of Tweedsmuir Parish bordering the Devil’s Beeftub there is an insignificant small hill known by the rather grand name of Crown of Scotland. Why this is so is not known although there is a story that the good James Douglas was knighted by King Robert the Bruce in about 1305 near this spot. Even in the unlikely event that Douglas was knighted near here why the grand name for the hill? It all sounds a bit fanciful. It is mystery that I don’t think will ever be solved, although I would be delighted if it was. The area round about is known as Earlshaugh and there is the ruins of an enonymous farm house once the home of the Welsh family. The reference to Earl must be to the Earl of Annandale. Earlshaugh is now the site for a proposed windfarm!
The Rev. John Buchan the father of the eponymous author must have seen the Crown of Scotland on a snowy frosty morning, a vista that he used in the last lines of one his poems titled The Tweed.
Hail, queen of Border rivers! thine the star,
The silver sceptre and crystal crown.
So, if anybody asks me about the Crown of Scotland I will say that it is the crown at the head of the queen of rivers!