About Us

Discover Scottish Borders is a website and social media stream to showcase the intrepid explorers of the Scottish Borders and the borderland between Scotland and England.

We cover the Myths and legends as well as strange places, We also have a love for the wildlife that frequents this area!

Our website is for everyone who has a connection with the Scottish Borders, whether you live here, have visited (or even want to visit), your ancestors came from here or if you just like the look of this beautiful region!

Mark Nicol is the driving force behind Discover Scottish Borders, meticulously researching, scouting and presenting his videos that are unique and full of informative information and bringing the Borders Regions history and tales to life that are almost forgotten. This is all done in Mark’s free time and days off!

It all started off one day with Mark exploring the local region and producing certain videos that were a way of documenting his explorations with a little bit of a fun element to add to better viewing and in context with Mark’s personality.

Things started to get a bit more serious when, with the near completion of the Borders Railway he decided to research the tourist capabilities of the areas of Galashiels and Tweedbank. This lead to a series of videos for visitors coming off the train to explore, such as walks and places to visit.

This captured a larger audience and viewers and in turn gave Mark a thirst to seek out the history and folklore of the regions in depth. At the time of writing this Mark’s YouTube channel has close to 200 videos each with its own story to tell.

The videos reach out far a field to the like of the USA, Canada, Australia and South Africa where people have a heart in the area from previous ancestors.

Discover Scottish Borders is growing all the time and becoming the hub for information of the Borders Regions. Recently Mark has appeared in a ITV Regional Broadcast with his own segment telling the tale of the Border Reivers.

Mark is also in demand as a speaker at local community groups where he showcases his self-learnt knowledge. Also, Mark takes carefully selected visitors to the region who want to explore the area and see for themselves the delights the regions hold.

When starting out and developing Discover Scottish Borders, Mark’s aim was to get people out and visiting these places and seeing for themselves. This can be gauged by the amount of correspondence we receive on the interest of subject matters.

Not only that, Discover Scottish Borders has been the forerunner of encouraging bloggers and YouTubers to produce their own content of their visit to a site and the exploration they have had, leaving a greater footprint of information as so more visitors may enjoy and discover the delights of our region.

Things are looking well for Discover Scottish Border! Can we take this further.......?

.......WATCH THIS SPACE!

Technically, as it stands today the Scottish Borders is a council area formed in 1975 – Although our website is not to be confused as solely concentrating on the council area but rather the whole of the Anglo-Scottish border area that has seen some of the most extravagant moments in history of the British Isles Historically, the term Borders has a wider meaning, referring to all of the burghs adjoining the English border, also including Dumfriesshire and Kirkcudbrightshire — as well as Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmorland in England.

Roxburghshire and Berwickshire historically bore the brunt of the conflicts with England, both during declared wars such as the Wars of Scottish Independence, and armed raids which took place in the times of the Border Reivers. Thus, across the region are to be seen the ruins of many castles, abbeys and even towns. The Scottish Borders has seen evidence from Pictish tribes, Roman Strongholds right through to important battles and documented papers that played a vital part of the several Wars of Independence.

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A man finds an old engraving of a standing stone and decides to investigate. Then tries to locate this lost and forgotten monument

A man investigates the large above and underground cave system at Grahamslaw in the Scottish Borders, then foolishly imagines this as the start of some kind of American style...

A short collage of birds in the Scottish Borders in March 2019

A nightmare(ish) glimpse of the future where everybody wants to get into a heavily defended Galashiels.

A man climbs Ruberslaw in the Scottish Borders for the first time and wonders at the stunning panoramas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiCMJWlC9LY

A man unwittingly captures a strange figure on film at Hermitage Castle while filming a video about the Borders Reivers.

On Friday 17th August Mark met with Craig and Becci Speers and their family to trace the family roots of her Armstrong family. They now reside in Southport and were...

A man searches for the lost and forgotten Chapel of St Cuthbert on the banks of the River Tweed, along the way looking at other churches and legendary stories...

A look at 3 mysterious standing stones in the Yarrow Valley, Scottish Borders....what do they mean??

A man investigates the eerie Whytbank Tower, Clovenfords in the Scottish Borders with some alarming results.

A man investigates the life and death of St Cuthbert from his origins in the Scottish Borders hills to the magnificence of Durham Cathedral.

A man dreams of kingfishers and riverscapes

A man goes in search of the legendary "Wallace's Putting Stone" at the summit of Meigle Hill in Galashiels.

A man investigates the earthworks on top of Woden Law near Jedburgh and also looks at the Roman road Dere Streeet and Pennymuir Roman camps.

Our Very own Mark Nicol on The Peoples History Show - STV

Short showcase of the beauty of our region in winter. https://youtu.be/zKrNX6Sp7NI

A man investigates stone circles in the Borderlands between Scotland and England, with some dramatic results.

A man travels to fantastical ruined castles, old bridges and monuments to uncover the history of the Battle of Flodden. The most disastrous day ever in Scottish Borders history.

A man serches for a mystical, beautiful largely unknown waterfall in the Scottish Borders. Taking in some more well known ones on the journey.

We go in search of the most ferocious and terrifying creature ever to stalk the countryside of the Borders. Please be careful if you visit this site yourself, who knows...

A man searches for monuments and evidence of Edward Logshanks and William Wallace in the Scottish and English Borderlands.

A man dreams of forgotten Scottish Borders castles, in Selkirk and on the cliffs of Berwickshire ..... but are they real?? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKWhexzBD6Y&feature=youtu.be

We investigate Twizel castle in Northumberland. One of many castles built on the Anglo-Scots Border to protect from marauding Scots armies.

A man looks at Hindhope Linn waterfall and the enchanting forest it cascades through, in Northern England.

A man searches for a Mithraic Temple in the Scots / English Borderland. He investigates the link between Jesus and the cult of Mithra the Sun God.

A man notices a similarity between 2 statues in Galashiels and Carlisle. And then goes on the trail of the most notorious of the Border Reivers, Johnnie Armstrong.

We go on the trail of the Black Douglas, inspired by the Netflix movie Outlaw King. He visits the real sites depicted in the film then tells the story...

A man finds an old engraving of a standing stone and decides to investigate. Then tries to locate this lost and forgotten monument

They don't make them like this no more! Edin's hall Broch near Duns

A mans childish obsession with finding caves and singing about them continues.

A look at Cauldshiels Hill, hill fort and the stand-off with the Rink fort and Catrail across the valley

History & Mystery Tours and Excursions

Expertly Led and Guided by Mark Nicol