The remains of an Iron Age Hill Fort can be seen on Bold Rig and it is easy to see why this spot was picked for a defensive position with its excellent views over the valley to the north.

Maybe there was a settlement of Romanised Britons around the Walker Burn or at least local people who settled and farmed perhaps to feed the legionaries in the camp at Innerleithen.

[citation needed] During the 9th century, the Britons of Tweeddale, in common with those of Strathclyde, felt severe pressures from the Irish Scots on the west, and the Saxons on the east.

After the kingdom of Cambria was overthrown by the Scottish king in 974, many Irish Scots settled in this area followed by settlers from Northumbria as the Saxons gained ascendancy.

[citation needed] To the north of the village, past the steading of the ‘new’ Caberston Farm lies the ruined cottage at Priesthope.

[citation needed] Before the woollen industry expanded in this area during the 1800s the pattern of settlement was that of small farms belonging to large estates, often with absentee landlords.

Market gardens supplying the rapidly growing city of Edinburgh abounded and both sheep and cattle farming were profitable.

The crofter-weaver ran his own sheep, usually on common land, the whole community helped with shearing, the women carded and span the wool and the weaver himself warped and mounted his web and wove it in his handloom.

The arrival of the railway and the opening of a Post Office in 1866 put Walkerburn firmly on the Peeblesshire map as an expanding, energetic mill village.

So a journey with a horse and cart or motor vehicle did not have to go via Innerleithen (where there was a bridge) or over the Bold Ford, which was sometimes impassable due to flooding of the Tweed.

The Institute was built in red Dumfriesshire sandstone, next to the Tweed Bridge, to provide education and entertainment for mill workers and their families.

Walkerburn had the highest casualty rate as a percentage of its population of any settlement in Scotland but the mill owners and the community looked after the many widows and children.

Post war, the textile trade boomed and in 1920 a hostel was built on Park Avenue to house female workers recruited from outside the village.

Enough money was raised for a full size figure, produced by Beltane Studios in Peebles, which was installed in at a service on 20 September 1999, held in heavy rain in the presence of the Princess Royal.

In 1920 Messrs Boving & Co of London were asked to examine the possibility of setting up a better system of using water power from the Tweed to supply the mills.

[citation needed] In 1932 the first village Summer Festival for the children was held with a football match against Innerleithen school for the ‘Paul Cup’.

[citation needed] The officers lived in Stoneyhill throughout the war, the soldiers’ canteen was run by the ladies of the village in the old darning shed.

[4] Sandy Russell, the chemist, won the Irish Sweepstake and threw a magnificent ball in Innerleithen for all the troops in the area and in 1941 the local Home Guard and Fire Service turned out as the Mill Wool Store burned down.

The Women's Voluntary Service established a unit in the village and ran not only the canteen but also many events to keep everyone entertained and help the war effort.

[citation needed] Walkerburn Mill employed some of the large numbers of Poles, Ukrainians and other Eastern European displaced persons who came to work here in the 1940s.

[citation needed] Money was being made fast in the textile trade but there were the first of many amalgamations though confidence was high and few foresaw the massive changes coming.

During the twice yearly selling season, the owner would get on the train in Walkerburn and be in London in time for breakfast at Lyons Corner House in Piccadilly before walking round to the Ballantyne office at 1 Golden Square.

[7] Burning Issues was founded as a monthly village newsletter and the Walkerburn and Innerleithen Partnership was formed to make the most of European regeneration funding.

"Hout, na, Sir Gideon," answered the considerate matron, in her vernacular idiom; "would you hang the winsome young laird of Harden when you have three ill-favoured daughters to marry?"

Upon this alternative being proposed to the prisoner, he upon the first view of the case stoutly preferred the gibbet to "Muckle-mouthed Meg," whose real name was Agnes.

It may be necessary to add that Muckle-mouthed Meg and her husband were a happy and loving pair, and had a large family.’ In truth, the marriage contract, which is still in existence, shows that ‘the marriage of young Harden and Agnes Murray, instead of being a hurried business, was arranged very leisurely, and with great care, calmness, and deliberation by all the parties interested, including the two principals, the bridegroom and bride, and the parents on either side.

In it young Harden and Agnes Murray agree to solemnise their marriage in the face of Christ's Kirk, within two months and a half after the date of the contract.

Is it not possible and probable that Sir William Scott was ‘handfasted’ to Agnes Murray in some such circumstances as are narrated by his descendant, the poet?

And may not the delay in solemnizing the marriage, necessitating the formation of a second contract, have been caused by the reluctance of ‘the handsomest man of his time’ to marry an ill-favoured bride?

Walter, the third son, called ‘Watty Wudspurs’ (or Mad-spurs), figures characteristically in the ballad of ‘Jamie Telfer.’ He was the ancestor of the Scotts of Raeburn.