New Lanark
October 2, 2001
We drove from Peebles, through Selkirk and Hawick to Teviothead, where we discovered that the Museum of Border Arms and Armour had been dissembled. We did get to see a couple "steel bonnets" and a few swords on display in its former location. We continued south to Langholm, west to Lockerbie and north through Moffat to the Devil's Beef Tub, which is a box canyon that is said to have been used by the Johnstones to hold their cattle during Border Reiving days. This area is also known as the place where the River Tweed begins.
We headed north to Biggar and to the New Lanark World Heritage Village, where we spent the night in the New Lanark Mill Hotel overlooking the Clyde River. Located close to the Falls of Clyde, the 200 year old mill, where cotton and woolen thread and yarn were spun, and the village, where the workers lived, has been preserved as a living history center. It is also a monument to Robert Owen, mill owner and social pioneer, who believed in education for the workers and their families and helped establish a co-operative store for the workers. There was time for a self-guided tour of the Village and its exhibits before we had dinner at the New Lanark Mill Hotel.
