St Mary's Loch

Cappercleuch is a settlement on the A708, at St. Mary's Loch in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, in the historic county of Selkirkshire. Places nearby include Bowerhope Law, Craigierig, Deer Law, the Dryhope Tower, Ettrickbridge, the Ettrick Forest, the Megget Reservoir, the Megget Water, Mountbenger, the former Tibbie Shiels Inn, the Yarrow Water and the Glen Cafe overlooking the Loch of the Lowes.

Megget Water is a river in the parish of Yarrow, Selkirkshire in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. The Water rises at Broad Law (2,760 ft), passes through Megget Reservoir and empties into St Mary's Loch. Places in the vicinity include Cappercleuch, Craigierig, Cramalt Tower, the Glengaber Burn, Meggethead Farm. The Megget area, formerly a parish united with Lyne, Scottish Borders, is of geological and archaeological interest, through stone artifacts at Henderland in the lower Megget valley (now in Wilton Lodge Museum, Hawick), and discoveries of gold.

The Southern Upland Way is a 344-kilometre (214 mi) coast-to-coast long-distance footpath in southern Scotland. The route links Portpatrick in the west and Cockburnspath in the east via the hills of the Southern Uplands. The Way is designated as one of Scotland's Great Trails by NatureScot and is the longest of the 29 Great Trails. The Southern Upland Way meets with seven of the other Great Trails: the Annandale Way, the Berwickshire Coastal Path, the Borders Abbeys Way, the Cross Borders Drove Road, the Mull of Galloway Trail, the Romans and Reivers Route and St Cuthbert's Way.The path is maintained by the local authorities of the two main council areas through which it passes: Dumfries and Galloway Council and Scottish Borders Council; a short section in the Lowther Hills lies in South Lanarkshire. It is primarily intended for walkers, but many parts are suitable for mountain bikers; some sections are also suitable for horse riders. About 80,000 people use the path every year, of whom about 1,000 complete the entire route and a completion certificate can be applied for through the Southern Upland Way official website. It is considered the most difficult of Scotland's Great Trails but also one of the most rewarding to complete passing through some of the UK's most remote land. A popular and less challenging option is to walk it in two stages: typically Portpatrick to Moffat, then Moffat to Cockburnspath at a later date.

Black Law is a hill in the Manor Hills range, part of the Southern Uplands of Scotland. One of the more remote Donalds, it does not easily combine into a round with other hills in the area and requires traversing rough terrain to reach the top. Common ascents are as part of an extended Dun Rig Horseshoe to the north-east, from the south at the Megget Reservoir or, most easily, from the Manor Valley itself.

Craigierig is a village on the Megget Reservoir, in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, in the former Selkirkshire. Places nearby include the Glengaber Burn, Henderland, St Mary's Loch, the Tibbie Shiels Inn, and Yarrow Water.

Megget is a former chapelry or parish containing the valley of Megget Water, now forming the westernmost part of the parish of Yarrow, Selkirkshire in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. The centre of the valley is 19 miles (31 kilometres) west of Selkirk. The district is bordered on the west by the parish of Tweedsmuir, on the north-west by Drumelzier and on the north by Manor (all in Peeblesshire). On the east side it is joined to the rest of the present parish of Yarrow, but formerly the parish boundary with Yarrow ran southwards from Black Law to Deer Law to Cappercleuch burn thence to St. Mary's Loch and continued down the west shore of the loch for almost one mile (1.5 kilometres) to Mare Cleuch by the Rodono Hotel. It is bounded on the south by Ettrick in Selkirkshire and on the south-west by Moffat in Dumfriesshire. Megget Stone lies on the western parish boundary, with Tweedsmuir.It is about seven miles (eleven kilometres) long north to south and about six miles (ten kilometres) wide with an area of 14,500 acres (5,900 hectares).The population of Megget in 1861 was 53 and in 1901 was 73. At the latest census (in 2011) the population of Megget was around 50.The parish of Megget derived its name from the river Megget, which took its name from the whey colour of its waters (Gaelic or old Welsh). Until 1891 it was part of Peeblesshire and thus part of Tweeddale, however "the water of Meggit is the only water in Tweeddale, that pays no tribute to Tweed; but runs from the south-east, some five miles [8 km], and ends its course in the bosom of St Mary Loch, and from thence, with Yarrow, watereth the wοόdy banks of the Forrest" (namely Ettrick Forest – the county of Selkirkshire).

Dun Rig is a hill in the Manor Hills range, part of the Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is the highest hill in the northernmost cluster of the Manor Hills, south of the town of Peebles in the Scottish Borders. A sprawling summit, it is usually climbed as part of the Dun Rig Horseshoe from the Peebles side and provides great views into the Moorfoot Hills, Pentlands, rest of the Manor Hills and the central Borders. It is the historic county top of the former county of Selkirkshire.

The Manor Hills, also known as the Tweedsmuir Hills, are a range of hills south of Peebles in the Scottish Borders, one of the ranges which collectively form the Southern Uplands. They are separated from the Moffat Hills by the Talla Reservoir, Megget Reservoir and St. Mary's Loch, the Moorfoot Hills by the A72 and the Culter Hills in South Lanarkshire by the A701. The western portion of the hills are designated as the 'Tweedsmuir Hills' Site of Special Scientific Interest and the 'Upper Tweeddale' National Scenic Area, with the major tributary rivers designated as Special Areas of Conservation.

Megget Reservoir is an impounding reservoir in the Megget valley in Ettrick Forest, in the Scottish Borders. The 259 hectares (640 acres) reservoir is held back by the largest earth dam in Scotland. The reservoir collects water from the Tweedsmuir Hills, which is then conveyed 28 miles (45 km) via underground pipelines and tunnels to Edinburgh. The pipelines are routed through the Manor Valley and the Meldon Hills, to Gladhouse Reservoir and Glencorse Reservoir in the Pentland Hills. These two reservoirs store the water until such times as it is required. Excess water which overflows from the reservoir is returned to the Megget Water, and hence into St. Mary's Loch.

Dob's Linn is a small steep valley in Dumfries and Galloway, just north of the A708 road between Moffat and Selkirk, in Scotland. It is part of the Grey Mare's Tail Nature Reserve which is owned by the National Trust for Scotland. According to tradition, Dob's Linn is named for a covenanter, Halbert Dobson, who took refuge there from Government troops during The Killing Time in the late 17th century.Dob's Linn is important in geology as the location of the Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) which marks the boundary between the Ordovician and Silurian periods, and marks the base of the Llandovery epoch, on the geologic time scale. Dob's Linn was ratified as the GSSP by the International Union of Geological Sciences in 1984.The boundary is defined as the first appearance of graptolites Parakidograptus acuminatus and Akidograptus ascensu 1.6 m above the base of the Birkhill Shale Formation. The shale section also contains chitinozoa and conodonts, but neither are well preserved. Dob's Linn has been criticized for the difficulty in relating its graptolite biostratigraphic sequence with shallow water sequences elsewhere, although the stratotype also appears to correspond with a carbon-13 isotope excursion in the latest Ordovician which can be identified worldwide.The area was first studied by Charles Lapworth in the late 19th century. His work established fossil graptolites as a method of understanding stratigraphic sequences. A more recent description of the area, enumerating the zones established by Lapworth, is given in the British Regional Geology Monograph. Before Lapworth's work, it was thought that the Silurian rocks of the Southern Uplands formed a single sequence, that would have to be about 6000m in thickness. By his identification of particular graptolite species in different zones of the Dob's Linn exposure, Lapworth was able to demonstrate that the Uplands consist of a much thinner layer, consistent with Silurian deposits elsewhere, that had been repeatedly folded and faulted, with multiple repetitions of the same strata, often upside down. The understanding that sequences of sedimentary rocks could be inverted played an important part in the later resolution of the Highlands Controversy in which Lapworth was also involved.

The Glen, also known as Glen House, is an estate and country house in the parish of Traquair, southern Scotland. It is located in the glen of the Quair Water, around 5 kilometres (3 mi) south-west of Innerleithen, and 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) south-east of Peebles, in the Scottish Borders. The estate is recorded from the 13th century, but the present Glen House was built in the mid 19th century. The house is protected as a category A listed building, and the grounds are included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland, the national listing of significant gardens. Besides the house, the Temple, stables, and the "Lion Gate" are also category A listed.

Andrewhinney Hill is a hill in the Ettrick Hills range, part of the Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is the highest summit of a ridge that runs parallel to the A708 road on its southern side, with the Grey Mare's Tail in the Moffat Hills directly opposite. The northwestern slopes are designated as part of the 'Moffat Hills' SSSI and SAC.