From a single inn on the New Post Road to a bustling railway village, and through the quiet changes of the 20th century.
A notice regarding the forming and making of the 'New Post Road from Ayton to the Tower Farm in 4 Allotments' was published in 1809. One of the contractors who responded was Thomas Grant, from Nairnshire, who backed his judgement on where he thought the connecting road to Duns would be located. He leased the land from Sir John Stirling of Renton and built the first house. The house was at some time converted to an inn and commonly became known as Grant's Inn or Tammy Grant's. By 1830 the inn was selling not only alcohol but also a wide range of other goods. In 1831 the first meeting of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club was held there. By 1841 the village consisted of 6 dwellings including the inn.
In 1839 plans for the east coast Edinburgh to Newcastle railway link were submitted but work did not start until 1844. It proved a mixed blessing for Grant's House. On the one hand it provided a boost for the local economy but on the other hand the navvies were notoriously rowdy. For safety's sake a hole was made in the door of the Inn and money flowed in one direction and whisky in the other. In 1845 a mob of navvies ran riot in Cockburnspath and were brought under control by armed Royal Irish Dragoon Guards. The navvies were replaced by 350 Highlanders and the railway opened in June 1846.
When William Grant, son of Thomas, married in 1846 his wife did not want to live or work in the Inn so a house and general merchant's shop was built next to the Inn. The village continued to grow and a variety of trades developed businesses here. It is said that at one time there were 30 boot and shoemakers providing among other things long-legged boots for use by the fishermen at Eyemouth, St Abbs and the Cove. In the area there was also a wealth of tailors and two grinding mills on the banks of the River Eye.
William Grant died in 1888 and before his death he offered £500 for the building of a church in Grantshouse, with the stipulation that the congregation of Houndwood Free Church would agree to move there. The Church was moved stone by stone from Houndwood and rebuilt at its present site in the village. By 1891 there were 90 people recorded as living in the village and a second grocer had opened his business. The villagers were resourceful people and in 1907 raised funds to provide a water supply and gas street lighting for what was now described as a "very pretty village".
In autumn of 1963 it was announced that the local train service between Edinburgh and Berwick was likely to be withdrawn and a few months later the Minister of Transport gave notice of the decision that "no hardship would result" from the closure of Grantshouse station. The A1 bypass of the village was completed in 1969 and two houses had to be demolished to enable this. A catalogue of closures followed in the 1970s. One of the garages burnt down and was not replaced: the shop, which was once William Grant's, closed in 1970; the school closed in 1972 and the church closed in 1973. At the present time there are no shops, no pub and the only community building is the village hall.
A name that speaks of ancient boundaries, high vantage points, and a rich history anchored by the local agricultural estate.
The name Harelawside is a linguistic time capsule. True to its Old English root **"Hār"** (meaning a grey boundary or landmark) and the Scots **"Law"** (a prominent, rounded hill), the landscape here is defined by elevations that historically marked the transition between the rugged Lammermuir moors and the coastal lowlands. The area has long been anchored historically by the Harelawside farmhouse and agricultural estate.
In the centuries before modern transport, Harelawside served as a natural sentinel monitoring the **Drove Roads**. Large-scale droving surged after the 1707 Union of Parliaments opened up English markets, with drovers navigating massive herds from the Highlands toward massive southern trysts like Falkirk, or straight into England. The beasts passing below Harelawside weren't modern, heavy cattle. They were mostly **"Kyloes"**—a hardy, agile, and much smaller ancestor of today's Highland cattle, perfectly adapted to walking 10 to 20 miles a day over steep, rough terrain.
Harelawside itself actively participated in these ancient routes well into the modern era. Local historical records note that even into the 1920s, farmers would walk their flocks of sheep from Harelawside directly over the Lammermuirs to agricultural gatherings like the Ellemford Show. These hill shows originally began as practical, annual gatherings for shepherds to sort and exchange sheep that had strayed across the vast, fenceless moors.
The elevation of Harelawside wasn't just useful for navigation; it was a matter of survival for those moving livestock. The Scottish Borders were historically plagued by **"reivers"** (cattle thieves) who used the very same drove roads to steal and smuggle livestock under the cover of darkness. Drovers sleeping on the open hillsides with only a woven tartan plaid for warmth had to post guards every night. A high vantage point like Harelawside would have been invaluable for spotting safe grazing land ahead and monitoring for approaching threats.
The Lammermuirs were crisscrossed by a network of these vital arteries. Alongside the cattle paths, routes like the famous **"Herring Road"** to the west were used by fishwives carrying heavy creels of salted catch from Dunbar to the inland markets of Lauder. Harelawside stood as a quiet witness to this massive, centuries-long migration of people, trade, and animals.
Once a dense, royal forest where kings pursued the hunt.
Long before it was a village, Houndwood was part of a vast, ancient woodland that stretched across Berwickshire. It was historically part of a massive, unenclosed hunting estate belonging to the powerful Priory of Coldingham. The name itself—Houndwood—stems directly from this era, referring to the packs of hunting dogs kept by the priors and visiting Scottish royalty to hunt deer and wild boar in the thickets of oak and ash.
Built to serve the growing communities of Grantshouse and Reston, the striking stone church was established in 1836 as a quoad sacra (a parish created for ecclesiastical purposes) of the established Church of Scotland. This predated the formation of the Free Church of Scotland during the "Great Disruption" of 1843.
For 180 years, this B-listed building served as the religious heart of the area, holding its final Church of Scotland service in 2003. In a fascinating piece of modern history, the building was purchased, beautifully restored by local stonemasons, and reopened to the public in 2015 as a crematorium, ensuring its historic architecture remains preserved for future generations.
The Eye Water was the industrial lifeblood of this rural valley. Long before modern electricity, the fast-flowing river powered several local mills—including Blackburn Mill and East Reston Mill. These were heavily utilized by local farmers for grinding corn and scutching flax (the process of separating the valuable fibers from the woody stem of the flax plant to make linen).
