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.

Like What I do?
Consider supporting me......

Keep us fueled up and on the road bringing you great content.

All for the small price of a Coffee

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 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...

Remote, ancient, mysterious graves of unknown pipers are scattered across the Border Hills, from Galashiels to Innerleithen to Ednam.

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

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

A man searches for evidence of enigmatic Border Reiver Hobbie Kerr and in particular Hobbie Kerr's cave, which had been pressumed "lost" for many years.

A man looks for the site of RAF Charterhall in the Scottish Borders, the scene of so many death during WW2.

A man searches for the site of 2 ancient castles on the river Liddel in the Anglo-Scots Borderlands

A man gets lost among the hills in the Scottish Borders after the first flurry of snow in 2016, with dramatic consequences.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfXmiIoorYA

The Scottish Borders and Lothians are celebrating 1000 years of being Scottish this year. We investigate the Battle if Carham which dictated this.

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

A man traces a link between Tweedbank in Galashiels and Caddonlee which was for centuries the muster point of the massed Scottish armies invading England.

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

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

A man takes us on the emotional roller coaster of a journey that is spotting otters in the Scottish Borders.

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

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

The life of Scotland's fiercest ever warrior the Black Douglas. Also the site of ancient Scottish fortress Roxburgh Castle is investigated.

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

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

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 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.

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

A man investigates the brutally violent pacification of the Scottish Borders during the Union of the English and Scottish Crowns.

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 searches for the 3 stone age Brochs which survived in the Galashiels area at the beginning of the first millennium.

The brothers standing stones, Smailholm tower and the Cow Stone

History & Mystery Tours and Excursions

Expertly Led and Guided by Mark Nicol