Discover Hawick

Hawick brings together the town’s history, textile heritage and paths along the River Teviot. If you’re looking for a hotel in Hawick, these different highlights can help guide your plans: from the High Street and its traces of the past to routes that take in bridges, attractions and the town’s development.

A townscape shaped by textile history and architecture

The Hawick Conservation Area includes the entire High Street and the historic town centre to its south. A large network of mill lades and industrial textile buildings has been preserved within this area. These are two distinct but connected traces of Hawick’s industrial history.

Eastfield Mill also reflects the long textile tradition: it has been a centre of textile manufacturing in Hawick for more than 140 years. The former William Beck's Stocking Shop tells of another phase in this development. It marks the transition from domestic to factory industry around the turn of the 19th century. Today, the building is a home; at the same time, it is the only surviving building of its kind in Hawick. Its former use and current function should therefore be clearly distinguished.

Other historic buildings add different architectural forms to this picture. The original Drumlanrig's Tower was a three-storey tower house with an L-shaped plan and an attic. The Douglases of Drumlanrig built it in the late 16th century. Tower Mill, in turn, is the only mill in Scotland built on a bridge. Together, the two buildings showcase very different forms of local architectural history.

The Common Riding and the history of the Scottish Borders

The Hawick Common Riding commemorates an event at Hornshole in 1514, when young people from Hawick captured an English flag. At the same time, the tradition preserves the old custom of riding the boundaries of the common land. A specific historical event and a time-honoured boundary custom thus sit side by side—two distinct aspects of local memory.

The Scottish Borders Archive offers a broader historical perspective. It is based at the Heritage Hub in Hawick and brings together more than 800 years of Scottish Borders history. This extends the view beyond the history of the town to include the history of the whole region.

Routes for different interests

The routes vary both in length and in what they highlight. The Hawick Town Trail is 4.5 miles long and gives visitors another way to explore local history and the town’s development. Check the route details before setting out.

The Bridges Trail follows a route of about 8 kilometres past all 14 of Hawick’s bridges and highlights various local attractions. It runs between Jooglie Bridge and Hornshole Bridge via the active travel network. As route details can change, it’s worth checking the latest information before setting out.

The two trails therefore appeal to different interests: the Town Trail focuses on the history of the town’s development, while the Bridges Trail links bridges with other attractions. For an overview of routes around Hawick, 13 routes ranging from 2 to 8 miles are also listed. These include sections of the Borders Abbeys Way.

Wilton Lodge Park on the River Teviot

Wilton Lodge Park has a long boundary along the River Teviot and lies on the side of the valley. Cycle routes are also part of its context: a £100,000 project to improve cycle routes was delivered by Sustrans Scotland as part of the Community Links Programme. It was developed in partnership with Scottish Borders Council and funded by the Scottish Government. If cycle routes are important to your plans, check current conditions in advance.

Hawick offers several specific points of interest for your stay: the surviving traces of the textile industry, the Common Riding tradition, historic architecture and routes with different focuses. You can choose which aspects of the town you’d like to explore further.

Discover more destinations: Newtonmore, Edinburgh, Jedburgh, Longniddry, Kingussie, Carrbridge, Forfar.

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