The Ettrick Hills are a range of hills that are part of the

Southern Uplands The Southern Uplands () are the southernmost and least populous of mainland Scotland's three major geographic areas (the others being the Central Lowlands and the Highlands). The term is used both to describe the geographical region and to col ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. They are neighboured to the northwest by the

Moffat Hills The Moffat Hills are a range of hills in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. They form a roughly triangular shape with a west facing side, a north facing side, and a south-east facing side. It is 17 kilometres from east to west across this triangl ...

and are located mainly within the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

; however, the

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway (; ) is one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland, located in the western part of the Southern Uplands. It is bordered by East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, and South Lanarkshire to the north; Scottish Borders to the no ...

border covers the south and southwesterly flanks.

The Hills

Not strictly defined, the hills form a lightly curving southwest–northeast shape and cover a considerable area. The Ettrick valley to the east separates them from the Craik Forest and the western border follows the A708 road. The large area west of

Hawick Hawick ( ; ; ) is a town in the Scottish Borders council areas of Scotland, council area and counties of Scotland, historic county of Roxburghshire in the east Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-south-east o ...

, southwest of Selkirk and south of

Yarrow Water The Yarrow Water is a river in the Scottish Borders, Borders in the south east of Scotland. It is a tributary of the Ettrick Water (itself a tributary of the River Tweed, Tweed) and renowned for its high quality trout and salmon, salmon fishing.< ...

could also be said to be part of the range as well as part of the historic

Ettrick Forest Selkirkshire or the County of Selkirk is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county of Scotland. It borders Peeblesshire to the west, Midlothian to the north, Roxburghshire to the east, and Dumfriesshire to the south. It de ...

. The hills are relatively low-lying for the counties in which they lie, with the highest summit, Ettrick Pen, being 692m, however, unlike other nearby ranges, could be said to follow a definitive direction. The highest hills are on the western extremity of the area. In a roughly southwest–northeast direction, the hills in the range over 2000 ft are:

Other Information

The area is renowned for its history, being part of the enormous Ettrick Forest, being the birthplace and frequent literary subject of the 'Ettrick Shepherd',

James Hogg James Hogg (1770 – 21 November 1835) was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots language, Scots and English. As a young man he worked as a shepherd and farmhand, and was largely self-educated through reading. He was a ...

as well as the birthplace and workplace of Tibbie Shiel, among other things.

Etymology

The area has a predominantly early Scots influence. 'Ettrick' is thought by W. F. H. Nicolaisen to be

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...

, in reference to the Ettrick Water from where the hills and settlements take their name. Ettrick Pen was known to have different names at the same time, known as ''The Penn of Ettrick'' and ''Hill of Penn of Esdaile Moore'' from Tweedsdale and Eskdale respectively.

References

{{reflist Geography of Scotland