Town in Scottish Borders, Scotland
Galashiels
Galashiels' motto is 'Sour Plums', a nod to 1337, when locals reputedly saw off English raiders caught scoffing wild fruit. Today the town's story runs from tweed to a 143-metre tapestry.
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Key information
- County
- Scottish Borders
- Nation
- Scotland
- Known for
- Tweed and woollen mills, the Braw Lads Gathering, the 'Sour Plums' legend
- What locals are called
- Gala folk
- Famous people
- Thomas Clapperton (sculptor); Sir Walter Scott lived at nearby Abbotsford
- Football clubs
- Gala Fairydean Rovers
About Galashiels
Why Galashiels' motto is 'Sour Plums'
The town's coat of arms shows a fox reaching up a plum tree, and the motto beneath it is 'Sour Plums'. Behind it is a story from 1337. A party of English soldiers is said to have wandered into the woods by the Gala Water to gather wild plums. Local men caught them in the act and wiped them out. The tale has stuck for nearly seven centuries. The town's pride in it is why 'Sour Plums' is still the way Gala folk poke fun at themselves and their neighbours, and why a tart green boiled sweet, the soor ploom, has long been tied to the place. The name itself is simpler. 'Shiels' were rough huts or shelters, and these ones stood beside the Gala Water, a tributary of the Tweed.
The town that clothed the world
Galashiels grew rich on wool. The Galashiels Manufacturers' Corporation formed in 1777, and from the end of the 18th century the Gala Water powered a crowd of mills turning Borders fleece into cloth. Tweed, with its hardwearing weave and its soft heather and moorland colours, became the town's trademark. Mill chimneys once lined the valley, and the town's streets still show the Victorian prosperity the trade built. Tartan weaving carries on close by at Lochcarron of Scotland's Waverley Mill in Selkirk. The skills are still taught here too. Heriot-Watt University runs its textiles and design courses from a campus in the town, so the trade has a young workforce as well as a long past.
A whole town on horseback
Every summer Galashiels turns out for the Braw Lads Gathering, which has run since 1930. The town chooses a Braw Lad and a Braw Lass, and hundreds of riders accompany the Braw Lad as he carries the Burgh Flag on a commemorative route through places tied to the town's history, including Netherdale and Abbotsford. It is a tradition with roots in the Borders custom of riding the marches. It is a proper community occasion, with bands, flower-laying, and the whole town lining the streets. In a region famous for its common ridings and festivals, Gala's has a special place for being tied so closely to that 1337 plum story. The reiver statue by the town's Burgh Chambers, the work of Gala-born sculptor Thomas Clapperton, shows the same Borders spirit in bronze.
Stitches, stone and Scott
The Great Tapestry of Scotland, its visitor centre opened in 2021, is one of the town's big draws. It is 143 metres long and tells Scotland's story across 160 hand-embroidered panels, created by around 1,000 volunteer stitchers from across the country. The idea came from the author Alexander McCall Smith. For older stones, there is Old Gala House, a 16th-century house that was once home to the lairds of Gala and now serves as a museum and gallery. Sir Walter Scott knew the area well. His home at Abbotsford is a short hop away, and the Waverley name on the town's mills nods to his novels.
Rugby, football and a railway returned
Like most of the Borders, Galashiels lives for rugby. Gala RFC, founded in 1875, play at Netherdale, which is also home to the football side Gala Fairydean Rovers. Sevens, the fast and compact version of the game, is a Borders invention, born at nearby Melrose in 1883, and Gala's own sevens tournament is part of the local calendar. The railway is a more recent story. The old Waverley Line through the town closed in January 1969, leaving the Borders without a train. In September 2015 the Borders Railway reopened it, bringing Galashiels within a short ride of Edinburgh once more.