Skirling
Skirling is a parish, community council area and village in Peeblesshire in the Scottish Borders situated miles east of Biggar in Lanarkshire. Biggar Water, a tributary the River Tweed forms the southern boundary of the parish with the parish of Broughton, Glenholm and Kilbucho. It is also bounded by that parish on the east, namely the Broughton part of it. On the north it is bounded by the parish Kirkurd in Peeblesshire. Spittal Burn forms most of its western boundary with Lanarkshire. The parish lies in the Southern Uplands. Its village is 690 ft above sea level. Its length, north to south, is 3 miles and it is 2 miles at most wide. The highest point in the parish is Broomy Law, 1399 ft, on the north-west boundary. At its northernmost point the parish is met by 5 other parishes (boundary stone at site). The earliest known record of Skirling by name dates from the reign of King Robert Bruce, who granted the barony of Scrawline to John Monfode. The barony of Skirling was possessed by the Cockburn family c.1370 - 1621 and during the 18th and 19th centuries by the Carmichael family. Thomas Gibson-Carmichael was raised to peerage of