The Borders had volcanoes too
At much the same time as all the volcanic action was taking place in East Lothian, volcanoes were erupting not far away to the south, around the Merse. Their remains still form many of the more prominent hills in the eastern Borders.
The lavas only form low hills around Kelso, but the many old volcanic necks and the intrusions can still be seen throughout the landscape.
Chief among these are the Eildon Hills (the Roman’s Trimontium). These were a complex volcano, a bit like Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh, and nature has opened it up for us to see today. Each hill or knoll is hard igneous rock, mostly sills where the molten rock solidified underground, and agglomerate where the volcano tossed ash and blocks of lava into the air only for them to fall back into the crater.
Other notable hills on the site of volcanoes include Dunion Hill, Black Law and Peniel Heugh around Jedburgh; Rubers Law and Bonchester Hill towards Hawick; Bemersyde and nearby Black, Redpath (presently being quarried) and Brotherstone Hills; Sandy Knowes (on which Smailholm Tower stands) and various other prominent hills towards Hume, Westruther, Greenlaw and Duns. Spectacular, too, are the twin peaks of the Dirrington Laws.