Selkirk Regis

About Selkirk Regis

As you approach the low walled flowerbed, you are standing in the heart of early Selkirk Regis, the Royal Town, with Castle Street on your right, which led to the site of the castle and the centre of power. The wooden castle was occupied by both sides during the Wars of Independence, with most of the construction done by the English. The site of Souter Statue the current Sentry Knowe housing estate was where a lookout was posted and Gallows Knowe, across the road and up the hill, was where local offenders were hanged for the entire town to see.
The South Port in front of you, was once the fortified gateway guarding the old road to Hawick in the south and St. Boswells in the east. Known under various names, the most evocative remains Foul Brig Port because of the terrible smells from the nearby tanpits, where the leather was cured for shoe making. It was demolished in 1767.
This area of Selkirk is now a 1960s modern redevelopment on the site of the old medieval town: it won a Civic Trust Award in 1971. Many old and interesting buildings once stood here.
Before you turn left into Back Row, look for the small statue of the Souter (shoemaker) high on a house wall. Shoemaking was Selkirk’s main trade before the arrival of the textile industry and the Shoemakers’ Guild was founded in 1609; only being disbanded in the 1960s. The trade lived on until 1975 when John Guthrie, the last shoemaker, retired but Selkirk remains full of “Souters” since it is the proud name given to the town’s natives.