Our return journey from Dryburgh and Floors Castle took us past St Mary's Loch. On this occasion, as well as thinking about the D E Stevenson connections to the Loch, in Anna and Her Daughters, I was also keen to see the Tibbie Shiels Inn. This inn is named after the woman who used to run it in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth centuries. It was a hotspot for literary figures of the time. William Wordsworth, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott and James Hogg all visited the inn, and it's easy to see how the views would have inspired them.
St Mary’s Loch is the legendary heartland of the Scottish Border Ballads. These tragic and supernatural folk songs, immortalised by Sir Walter Scott in his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, feature dramatic tales of outlaws, unquiet graves, and fairy realms rooted in the surrounding Ettrick and Yarrow valleys.
The Douglas Tragedy is tied to the ancient St. Mary's Kirkyard overlooking the loch, this famous ballad tells the tragic story of two eloping lovers. The hero slays the woman's father and brothers, only for both lovers to die from grief and wounds. Mary Scott: the heroine of this ballad (written by local poet James Hogg) is said to have been brought to St. Mary’s Kirk to be buried, miraculously awoke, and married her lover. Thomas the Rhymer & Kilmeny: the loch's waters and nearby Bowerhope hills are heavily tied to fairy lore, featuring tales of protagonists whisked away to the realm of Elfland.
Across the road there is a statue of James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd named after the valley, overlooking the Loch. Hogg knew Tibbie well and immortalised the Inn in his poem The Queen's Wake.
There are other literary connections including the conversations of John Wilson (Christopher North) and William Edmonstoune Aytoun's poem Tibbie Shiels. I'm looking forward to finding out more about these two writers and their connections to the area.