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

My Radio interview on TD1 Radio

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

A man walks along the legendary Catrail or Picts Ditch Earthwork from the great and uncharted Rink Fort near Galashiels to Torwoodlee Broch

A man investigates what potentially could be the first Christian site in Scotland and finds the oldest Christian relic ... all signalling the beginning of the end for ancient...

The graves of Border Reivers are few and far between. In this new film we go looking for one of the most notorious of all ....Kinmont Willie Armstrong’s burial place..

A man searches for Wallace sites in the Scottish Borderlands including Wallace's trench and a possible resting place for his remains.

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

A man investigates the murder , in 1685, of a Covenanter based soley on his religion amid the stunning scenery of Tweedsmuir and the Scottish Borderlands.

A man searches for a top secret World War 2 Operations bunker + Iron age hill fort, all amongst the stunning Scottish Borders countryside.

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

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

A man searches for a little known Roman fort in Peeblesshire and investigates the difference between Roman sites on Hadrians Wall and in The Scottish Borders.

A man investigates the brutal witch hunts carried out in the Scottish Borders in the 1500s. A period in history which has largely been swept under the carpet.

A man investigates Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace's links to the Borders town of Galashiels.

Highlights from our Scottish Borders history and mystery tour last year 2018, and looking forward to the May 2019 tour.

A man looks at St Mary’s Loch in the Scottish Borders and investigates some of the history associated with the ancient Kirkyard there.

A man walks along the legemdary Catrail or Picts Ditch Earthwork from the great and uncharted Rink Fort near Galashiels to Torwoodlee Broch

A man investigates 15th century Scottish Border landowner Robert Pringle of Wrangholm and a huge prehistoric temple

A man investigates goblins, ghosts and fairies in Southern Scotland while looking for the gates of Hell ..... with terrifying results!

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

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

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

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

A man walks from Galashiels to Clovenfords via the forgotten Blindlee Tower and mysterious Meigle Pots. Also features a clip from "Am no a Grass" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxGn_YPXst0  

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 films the outline of Trimontium Roman Fort near Melrose during the drought conditions of 2018 with real dramatic results.

We think a lot more could be done to promote the area for wildlife tourism.

A man investigates the site of a pivotal moment in World War 1

We visit a prehistoric site to watch the first sunrise of 2019 in the Scottish Borders

Adam Scott of Tushielaw was a Border Reiver known as the "The Prince of Thieves", in this film a man goes looking for his tower, and investigates his demise...

History & Mystery Tours and Excursions

Expertly Led and Guided by Mark Nicol