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Drumelzier (), is a village and civil parish on the B712 in the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders.
The area of the village is extensive and includes the settlements of Wrae Tower, Stanhope, Mossfennan and Kingledoors. To the north is Broughton and to the south the road passes Crook Inn to Tweedsmuir. Powsail Burn (also called Drumelzier Burn) runs through Drumelzier to become a tributary of the River Tweed. Stobo Castle hotel and health spa are in the area, as is Dawyck Botanic Garden, one of three "Regional Gardens" of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
Drumelzier is pronounced /drəˈmɛljər/. This is due to the original Middle Scots spelling, Drumelȝier, containing the letter yogh, which was later erroneously confused with the tailed z.
The Castle was abandoned and as a ruin became a convenient quarry for building stone for the farm its ruins now stand in; the square south tower stood at its original height as late as 1972. The remains have since been mainly demolished and the site cleared on the grounds of safety; only the rubble-filled stump of the tower now remains. Scran Record. Accessed : 2010-07-11
The castle probably dates from the late 15th or early 16th centuries and may have been built by the Tweedies of nearby Drumelzier. The remains indicate a rectangular castle with curtain-walls that enclosed a courtyard with a tower-house at the south corner; circular towers were located at the north and west angles. Tinnis on Scran. Accessed : 2010-07-11
An anonymous 17th-century account indicates that Tinnis Castle was blown up by Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming in the course of an ongoing feud between the Flemings and the Tweedies of Drumelzier. Tinnis Castle, Canmore: National Record of the Historic Environment, Historic Environment Scotland However, in 1592 James VI ordered the demolition of "Tynneis" belonging to James Stewart, with Harden Castle and Dryhope Tower, belonging to Walter Scott, for their part in the Earl of Bothwell's raid on Falkland Palace.David Masson, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland: 1585-1592, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1881), p. 769.
'Myrddin Wyllt', 'Merlinus Caledonensis' or 'Merlin Sylvestris'Seymour, Page 9 (c. 540 – c. 584) is a figure in Celtic Britons medieval legends, regarded as a prophet, madman, pagan and a prototype for the composite representation of Merlin in Arthurian romance.
In Welsh people legend Merlin is said to have been born in Carmarthen, South Wales, which a popular but false folk etymology claims is named after the bard; Celticist A.O.H. Jarman suggests that instead his original name Myrddin was derived from Carmarthen's Welsh name Caerfyrddin. Stories of the life of Myrddin Wyllt can be found in the Black Book of Carmarthen (1250 A.D.), written in a Brythonic Celtic language. In the Welsh tradition of his life he is said to be a wild man of the woods, prophet and Bard as written in Vita Merlini (1150).
The Merlin of the 12th century manuscript Vita Merlini Silvestris (Cotton library Titus A xix) was originally called Lailoken, a warrior so traumatised by the scale of the slaughter he witnesses at the Battle of Arfderydd (Arthuret) in 573 that he retreats to the Great Wood of Caledon, where he lives as a wild man. In this tale, the captor of Lailoken is the local king Meldred. Lailoken's madness has endowed him with the gift of prophecy and Meldred holds him in his fortress at Drumeller in the hope of extracting prophecies which he can use to his advantage. During negotiations over his release, Lailoken draws attention to a leaf caught in the queen's wimple which he claims is evidence of an assignation with her lover in the king's garden. Lailoken secures his release, but the queen takes revenge on him for revealing her affair by arranging to have him ambushed and killed by a gang of shepherds.Veitch, John (1893), History and Poetry of the Scottish Border, Volume 1, William Blackwood and Sons, p. 224Clarkson, Tim (2016), Scotland's Merlin: A Medieval Legend and its Dark Age Origins, John Donald, Edinburgh, pp. 40 - 45,
Merlin Sylvestris was baptised and thus converted to Christianity by Saint Kentigern at the 'altarstone' near the village and is said to have died through his 'three deaths' here also.Seymour, Page 9 Legend has it that he prophesied his own death of falling, drowning and stabbing. It is said that he was chased off a cliff by shepherds where he tripped and fell, impaled himself on a fishing rod on the sea bed and died with his head under the water.Young, William A. (2022), The Ghosts of the Forest: The Lost Mythology of the North, Inter-Celtic, Edinburgh, pp. 89 - 95,
Meldred has Lailoken buried in the churchyard to the west of his fortress, close to where the Powsail Burn (today named Drumelzier Burn, flowing just north of Drumelzier Kirk) joins the River Tweed. Pennicuick in 1715 states that Merlin was buried a little below the churchyard at the side of the Powsail Burn. Richard Brown, a minister of the parish, showed Pennicuick the exact spot, marked by a thorn tree. A prophecy is stated :
| "When Tweed and Powsail meet at Merlin's grave, Scotland and England shall one monarch have. Groome, Page 374 |
The very day that James VI of Scotland and I of England was crowned the prophecy was fulfilled, with the River Tweed bursting its banks and meeting with the Powsail Burn at Merlin's Grave, something it had not done before and has not done since.
| Tweed said to Till, 'What gars ye rin so still?' Till said to Tweed, 'Though ye rin wi' speed, And I rin so slaw, Yet where ye droun ae man, I droun twa!'. Westwood, Page 361 |
The Tweed is wide and shallow, whilst the nearby Till is deep and narrow.
A local tradition tells of a Baron of Drumelzier returning from a long involvement in the Crusades to find his wife nursing a baby. The wife explained that one day she had been walking beside the Tweed when the river spirit appeared and ravished her. The Baron appears to have accepted the explanation; however, less convinced locals applied the nickname 'Tweedie' to the child, who became Baron Drumelzier. The family name of the Barons was Tweedie. One of the Merovingian Kings of France was supposedly conceived under similar circumstances.Westwood, Page 362
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