Visitors return to Scotland’s four royal botanic gardens

DETAILS of the reopening of Scotland’s four royal botanic gardens will be unveiled on Wednesday, including how to pre-book tickets to enter the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. All four gardens – at Benmore in Argyll, Dawyck in the Borders, Edinburgh, and Logan in Galloway – will reopen on 1 July. Visitors will need to book…

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Online auction supports Borders artists

TWO horse sculptures gilded in 24-carat gold are among the works going under the hammer at a special online sale on 25 June organised by Jedburgh auction house Brown & Turner and the Borders Art Fair. The event will help artists from the Borders and beyond who have been unable to use galleries to sell…

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Poaching and vandalism rise

After several unsavoury incidents of poaching and vandalism – including £30,000 of damage when a pheasant shoot was deliberately destroyed, the vandalising of high seats, poaching at a Kinross fishery, and the arrest of two men for illegal fishing in Kelso – game shoots and fisheries are being warned to be extra vigilant during lockdown.…

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Gamekeepers sculpt heather message for ambulance crews

Gamekeepers on Greenlaw Moor in the Scottish Borders have demonstrated their solidarity with health workers after counting the ambulances passing them on the Duns road. Head Gamekeeper Jamie Goodall and Tom Wilson realised how much busier the road adjacent to their ground had become with emergency vehicles during the Covid-19 crisis. Whilst carrying out agreed…

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Photos wanted for new charity calendar

People with time on their hands are being urged to look through their photos of the Scottish Borders and enter a competition. The Macmillan Cancer Support Coldstream committee, helping people in the Borders, is looking to create its first calendar for the whole area. Last autumn, the committee launched a digital photographic competition to create…

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Traditional farmhouse ideal for family living

A traditional Scottish farmhouse with steading has been made available for sale. Presented by Galbraith, Eccles Mains Farmhouse is an attractive, traditional, detached family home with excellent central location in Eccles, near Kelso. The spacious, versatile and well-presented family sized accommodation benefits from oil fired central heating and most windows are double glazed. The farmhouse…

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This year’s Borders Union Show is cancelled

The Border Union Show 2020 has been cancelled due to the ongoing coronavirus situation. The Border Union Agricultural Society directors, trustees and staff, after taking careful account of the latest UK and Scottish Government and public health guidance, have announced the cancellation of the show, due to be held on July 24 and 25. With…

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Six book shortlist for the Walter Scott Prize

The judges of the £25,000 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction announced its eleventh shortlist today. The six-book shortlist is: The Narrow Land by Christine Dwyer Hickey (Atlantic); The Parisian by Isabella Hammad (Jonathan Cape); To Calais, In Ordinary Time by James Meek (Canongate); Shadowplay by Joseph O’Connor (Harvill Secker); The Redeemed by Tim Pears…

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The end of the line for phone boxes?

The rise of mobile phones has made red telephone boxes obsolete but there are plenty of other uses for these much-loved cultural icons… When was the last time you made a phone call from a public telephone box? Since the mass adoption of mobile phones in the 1990s, unless you happen to have found yourself…

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Scotland and Mexico combined in a new whisky

Scotch whisky Dewar’s has announced the release of a new dram with a difference. Ilegal Smooth takes Dewar’s 8 year-old double-aged blended Scotch whisky, and finishes it in Ilegal Mezcal casks. The second in a new cask-finished series of whiskies, Dewar’s Ilegal Smooth aims to find new whisky appreciators through partnering with Ilegal, a artisanal…

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