The Jed Water is a river and a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainag ...

of the

River Teviot The River Teviot (; gd, Abhainn Tìbhiot), or Teviot Water, is a river of the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, and is the largest tributary of the River Tweed by catchment area. The Teviot is an important river for wildlife, especially the ...

in the Borders region of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

. In total the Jed Water is over long and it falls . It flows into the Teviot near Jedfoot Bridge () two miles north of

Jedburgh Jedburgh (; gd, Deadard; sco, Jeddart or ) is a town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders and the traditional county town of the historic county of Roxburghshire, the name of which was randomly chosen for Operation Jedburgh in s ...

. Jed Water rises from a source on Carlin Tooth in the Cheviot Hills where it is first known as Raven Burn.

Description

The river in past times was the main source of water for the monks living in Jedburgh Abbey. It also powered a watermill in the town of

although this no longer exists. It gives its name to Jedburgh and

Jedforest Jedforest is an historic forest in the Scottish Borders, that has been heavily wooded in the past. It is close to Jed Water and the town of Jedburgh, from which it takes its name. The forest is home to the widespreading Capon tree. It is an oak ...

. In the 1800s it had trout in the river. The Ordnance gazetteer said Jed Water "in the parts immediately above the town of Jedburgh ... more of the elements of fine landscape than during a whole day's ride in the most favourite Scottish haunts of tourists."Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.
/ref> The guide drew attention to the pure waters, the brisk currents, the steep landscapes and the contrasts which it thought picturesque. The name Jed is of obscure origin. James has suggested that it may derive from

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

''*wei(h₁)- d-'' "a bend, something curved or twisted". He also notes that Scots ''Gedde-'' in Jedburgh may have been adopted from

Cumbric Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brittonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the '' Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" in what is now the counties of Westmorland, Cumberland and northern Lancashire in Northern England and the sout ...

'' gwï:δ'' "a wood", and that the river name may be a

back-formation In etymology, back-formation is the process or result of creating a new word via inflection, typically by removing or substituting actual or supposed affixes from a lexical item, in a way that expands the number of lexemes associated with the ...

. In 1787 James Hutton created modern geology when he discovered Hutton's Unconformity at Inchbonny,

, in layers of

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particle ...

on the banks of the Jed Water. He later wrote of how he "rejoiced at my good fortune in stumbling upon an object so interesting in the natural history of the earth, and which I had been long looking for in vain".

Flooding

Jed Water is liable to flood, so the river levels are monitored near the old Canongate Bridge. The depth is usually between and metres deep but it has been as deep as which it reached in January 2016. In 2020 there was a problem when the flood defences in Jedburgh were breached by debris in one storm just before another storm hit. Luckily repairs were made and serious flooding was avoided.

References

External links

RCAHMS record of the Jed WaterSCRAN image: The Jed Water, winter 1961/2GEOGRAPH: Mossburn Ford, Jed Water
{{authority control Rivers of the Scottish Borders 2Jed Jedburgh

Description

Flooding

See also

References

External links