Latest news with #TweedValley
Times
23-05-2025
- General
- Times
Ospreys share love nest in live-streamed ‘throupling'
The relationship history of Mrs O, a female osprey which nests in the Scottish Borders, is one that soap opera writers could only dream of. The bird, which has returned to the Tweed Valley site for several years, is now engaged in a throuple after last year fighting another female for the prime nesting spot, and stealing her mate to boot. The rare 'polygamy saga' involving the three ospreys — one male and two female — has been captured on a livestream for the first time which experts say will help them to better understand the birds' behaviour. The new young male has mated with both females, a form of polygamy known as polygyny, and they have laid four eggs between them. The trio are
The Independent
22-05-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Three birds share a nest in osprey ‘love triangle'
A 'very rare' love triangle involving three ospreys is being captured on a livestream camera for what is thought to be the first time. The trio of birds – one male and two female – are sharing a nest together in the Tweed Valley in the Scottish Borders. The male has mated with both females, a form of polygamy known as polygyny, and they have laid four eggs between them. They are said to be getting along with each other all right so far apart from tension over fish deliveries from the male which both females, one named Mrs O, want to grab. Viewers can watch the domestic saga playing out on a livestream camera set up by Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) as part of the Tweed Valley Osprey Project. Diane Bennett, Tweed Valley osprey project co-ordinator, said: 'So far things are looking good. The females seem amicable and tolerant with both having mated with the male bird and laying four eggs between them. 'The only tension witnessed so far has been on the arrival of a fish delivery from the male as the two females both make a grab it. 'Mrs O usually wins the fish and flies off to feed but has been seen to return with a portion remaining and letting the other female have it. 'This nest behaviour with all the birds in the same nest is very rare and as far as we know it is the first time this has ever been on a livestream camera with most other research involving such a set-up previously conducted though distant observation. 'Getting to watch this saga close up as the season unfolds is exciting both for the drama but also for the important research insights it will allow.' Mrs O has nested at the site before and has been joined by a new female and young male this year. FLS said the identity and background of the new arrivals is not clear. Although they both have British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) rings which provide information on survival and movements they do not have the coloured, alphanumeric Darvic rings that enable researchers to identify individual birds. While Mrs O is also only fitted with a BTO ring she can be identified from her head markings as she has been returning to the site for several years. The eggs are expected to hatch in the coming weeks. The Tweed Valley Osprey Project was set up in 1998 to help to establish a breeding population of ospreys in the Scottish Borders. The livestream can be viewed at
BBC News
19-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
New tracks help fuel next cycling generation in the Borders
Leading cyclists believe a surge in the number of pump tracks opening across the Scottish Borders can help generate the next generation of Scottish mountain bike champion Kerry MacPhee and rising star, Ben Allan, enjoyed a spin around the latest track to open in Stow are confident the increased facilities are helping drive forward the sport - in the Borders and across who is one of British Cycling's top hopes in mountain bike cross-country, said: "I grew up near Peebles with a pump track on my doorstep and it taught me everything I needed to know with basic skills." Pump tracks are designed to create a safe, fun and inclusive area for the likes of BMX bikes, scooters, skateboards and design combines rolling jumps with turns that teach the basic skills of carrying momentum, balance and the past couple of decades the Borders has produced an endless string of road and off-road cycling the likes of Ruaridh Cunningham, Isla Short, and Reece Wilson have shone on mountain bike courses, the likes of Oscar Onley and Callum Thornley are regular challengers at some of the biggest road races in the world. Continued investment in pump tracks - as well as upgrading mountain bike facilities in the Tweed Valley and at Newcastleton - is encouraging more youngsters than ever onto two who is about to embark on his first international Under 23s season, added: "Even at a small village like Stow you can see the appetite there is for cycling."Pump tracks are a form of acceleration-progression for bike skills - you learn things really quickly."Almost every town in the Scottish Borders now has its own pump track with three opening in the past year - at Jedburgh, Walkerburn and Stow. EDF Renewables community liaison officer Kerry MacPhee competed at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in mountain said: "I regularly see all of the community benefits that come from EDF Renewable developments, but this is particularly special for me."I'm told that since the pump track opened the children are never off it."Pump tracks are great fun - and that fun can lead to them taking cycling more seriously as they get older." Funding for the track in Stow came from Scottish Borders Council, as well as Sportscotland, Scottish Cycling, EDF Renewables, SSE Renewables and the National McBeath, from the Stow Pump Track fundraising group, said: "The roads aren't always safe to ride on for children so we felt it was vital to have a facility like this in the village."Since opening we have children coming from all over the valley to ride on the pump track."
News.com.au
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
US actor Zac Efron's Aussie long lunch haunt is on the market
A famed long lunch destination frequented by celebrities including US actors Zac Efron and Tom Hanks is up for sale. Located in the picturesque Tweed Valley, Mavis Kitchen and Cabins is known for serving up delicious farm-to-table fare, with past guests also reportedly including Aussie stars Naomi Watts and Margot Robbie and singer Usher. The northern NSW property at 64 Mount Warning Rd, Mount Warning is marketed by Coastal agent Ed Cherry with a price guide of $2.95m-$3.15m. Set over 9.92 of lush grounds and surrounded by rainforest, the estate includes five self-contained cabins, among them a spacious 4-bedroom farmhouse, along with a restored 120-year-old Queenslander home. There's also a barn, shed, outbuildings, and parking for 60 cars, while the landscaped grounds feature established organic vegetable and bush gardens, orchards, a dam and creek complete with natural swimming holes and even a resident platypus. Mr Cherry said the property offered 'immense potential' for a visionary restauranteur or entrepreneur. 'Whether you envision it as a private family retreat, an eco-resort, a sanctuary for yoga and meditation retreats, a space for workshops and team-building activities, or even as one of Australia's premier culinary and accommodation destinations, the opportunities are boundless.' Owners Tindal Magnus and Sam McCormack paid $1.84m for the property in 2020. The business was founded in 2007 on the site of an old dairy farm by former owners and Gold Coast restaurateurs, Charlie Ebell and Peter Clarke. It currently operates as a short-term tourist accommodation and weddings and events space with a liquor license. The restaurant, closed to the public since 2024 but available for private functions, previously catered for up to 120 guests. Mavis general manager Nigel Chouri said visitors hiking the nearby Wollumbin/Mount Warning summit had formed a large portion of customers before walking access was cut during the pandemic, drastically affecting trade. The restaurant's closure was lamented by the community, while the opening of another walking trail next to the property was a positive development for new owners. 'Mavis is a wonderful landholding at the base of Wollumbin and I think the power of the place really is in its beauty,' Mr Chouri said. 'There is a massive amount of wildlife and birds that visit the property, which is very special, and we have a really beautiful biodynamic food garden.' He hoped to attract new owners who would be excited to re-open the restaurant and make use of the abundant natural food sources of the verdant Tweed Valley, with the property about to harvest its next bumper tropical fruit crop. 'The restaurant was a huge part of the community. It has been awarded some chef's hats from foodie publications on numerous occasions, and there has been a lot of celebrity who have visited too – Zac Efron loves it here,' Mr Chouri said. Efron owns a nearby 128ha property close to the Queensland border, purchased for $2m in December 2020. He lodged plans last year to build 'the most sustainable home in the world' at the site, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Telegraph
17-05-2025
- Telegraph
The genteel Borders town the Scots keep for themselves
'This is the town that Scots seem to keep for ourselves,' beams Stewart Wilson, a guide whose enthusiasm for his Borders homeland risks letting the secret out, as he proudly shares a corner of the Tweed Valley settled since Neolithic times. 'It's crazy that today most people just zoom by heading further north as Melrose brings together many of the best bits of the Borders in one charming wee town.' If us Scots are keeping Melrose under wraps today it's hardly surprising: historically, Melrose has not had the most polite of visitors. England's Edward I plundered through in 1300, his son Edward II continued the family tradition by sacking Melrose in 1322, before this market town was battered again during the 'Rough Wooing' of Henry VIII in the 1540s. Melrose's most celebrated attraction, its landmark abbey, is a permanent visceral reminder of those turbulent times. The locals may be proud that the heart of Scotland's most celebrated monarch, Robert the Bruce (of Bannockburn fame), is interred here, but the abbey is but a romantic ruin – perhaps Scotland's most evocative – after Richard II's forces burned it in 1385 and the Reformation put the final nail in its grand Gothic coffin. The English legacies run deep – local legend even insists that King Arthur lies buried in the Eildon Hills. We know that the Romans coveted the triple peaks of the Eildon Hills too, forging one of the largest forts anywhere in Britain, eponymous Trimontium, a stronghold of such significance it featured on a map produced by Roman geographer Ptolemy in the second century. At least one emperor, Septimius Severus, visited in 208AD, bringing with him the largest Roman army ever to march north into the country. Once again, though, the Romans were sent home tae think again. 'Scotland was ancient Rome's Afghanistan,' Thania M Flores, of Melrose's Trimontium Museum, tells me as their new virtual-reality headset experience vaults me back through the centuries to the days when Roman raiding parties tried to terrorise the local clans into submission. 'The united opposition to the Romans became so strong that we have found evidence during digs that Trimontium was abandoned with great haste,' continues Flores. 'This suggests a powerful, united enemy, centuries before Anglo-centric scholars even consider an embryonic Scottish nation. It's a potential game-changer for how we look at British history.' The museum also runs walking tours around the Trimontium site, visiting the northernmost amphitheatre in the Roman Empire. I instead pitch forward through time to Burts. This stately, traditional hotel is a pleasing timewarp itself, and has been in the same family for 54 years. It has changed little since my wife and I decided on our first child's name here. Tara is now 17. Over delicious Borders lamb and a pint of a crisp hoppy ale from the superb local Tempest Brewery Co, owner Nick Henderson tells me: 'We are all about tradition and heritage in Melrose and our hotel reflects that. We welcome guests to a gentler age where things were less hurried and people had time for each other. And it's so much quieter than the Lake District to our south.' The Hendersons are the embodiment of Melrose's sense of tradition and community. Just across the picturesque High Street is the Townhouse Hotel, run by Nick's brother James. Both recline on a market square that evokes the days when we didn't need weekend farmers' markets in car parks as you could just pop into a proper butchers. Wandering around Melrose is like exploring Camberwick Green or Trumpton. I half expect to meet Windy Miller. Instead, at the well-stocked Country Kitchen Deli, cheery Angela Abbey, who swapped the Cotswolds for Melrose for a 'gentler, slower life', greets me. At Simply Delicious, I enjoy their tasty tablet – a sweet Scottish treat much tastier than it sounds – as the beaming welcomes continue. I'm greeted like an old pal in antique shops, wine emporiums, wee galleries and the sprinkling of tasteful gift shops that Melrose tolerates. Melrose even has a book binder – Felicity Bristow – who entreats me to come back for the annual book festival in June. Melrose doesn't do chains. No Starbucks. No Costa. No hint of a supermarket; only Boots, who have an apologetically unassuming presence. This trim, liveable town makes a defiant stand against the world of supermarket hegemony, a battle Galashiels just a few miles upriver resoundingly lost a couple of decades ago with the arrival of a hulking Tesco and similarly suffocating Asda. It's very tempting to stay wrapped within Melrose's cosy cocoon, but there are too many two-footed options to ignore. Melrose must be Scotland's best connected walking hub. An excellent network of trails ramble around the town's environs in the Melrose Paths community-led initiative. The coast-to-coast, 215-mile Southern Upland Way also surges through along the lifeblood River Tweed, while the St Cuthbert's Way sends walkers on a cross-border ecclesiastical foray to Lindisfarne. I embark on a section of the 68-mile Borders Abbeys Way, a circular trail that takes in the ruins of the quartet of grand Borders Abbeys that were all sacked by unruly English visitors over the centuries. If us Scots are keeping Melrose to ourselves, we've gone a step further and totally abandoned the hills that rise to the east. I hike above Sir Walter Scott's palatial home at Abbotsford and the only souls I see are of the white woollen variety, bar one deer interloper. It's just me, the gently rolling hills of the Tweed Valley – a tonic to the savageness of the Highlands – and the sort of eclectic forestry that you seldom savour in the vast tracts of grouse-beaten Highland estate. The skies are blue and the spring sun is burning after a couple of hours, so I could be forgiven for thinking Cedar Hus Sauna is a mirage. The sense of surreality heightens when Laura Mitchell engages me with a smile and hands me a wool hat that is needed 'to keep your ears cool when I'm thrashing you with birch'. It's quite an introduction from Mitchell and turns chilly when we take a dip in Lindean Loch as part of the ritual. Laura then joins me steaming away in her brilliant home-fashioned mobile sauna, steeping us with fresh pine fragrance, then doing the thrashing; much more pleasurable than it sounds.
