About Ian

Ian has a great passion and knowledge of the Scottish Borders, Dumfries & Galloway and Northumberland. He looks forward  to welcoming you and sharing the beauty, history and culture of these unspoilt regions with you.

Ian  was born and raised in Dumfriesshire. His father farmed the family farm which had been in the family for generations; his mother was raised in the beautiful Yarrow Valley in Selkirkshire.

Ian and his sisters spent a very happy childhood growing up on our family farm near Lockerbie. They attended the local primary school followed by Lockerbie Academy. Ian left school at 18 but decided that further education wasn’t for him; he decided to join the Civil Service in Dumfries. After a career that took him to London, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Carlisle, it was time to say goodbye in 2011.

2012 saw Ian say goodbye to Glasgow city life and return to his ancestral roots in the Scottish Borders. As well as moving home he decided after meticulous research to launch a new business providing organised and individually designed tours of the Scottish Borders, Dumfries & Galloway and Northumberland. Borders Journeys was born.

Borders Journeys has been a dream of Ian’s for several years. This dream was influenced by spending special time with his paternal grandfather on the family farm and happy family visits and holidays to his maternal grandparents in Selkirkshire. Ian’s paternal grandfather told him tales from his childhood and family history; this was the beginning of a lifelong passion for genealogy which Ian has recorded for future generations. When his nephew and niece were small they loved hearing stories that their great papa Walker had told Ian when he was a child.

Ian’s maternal grandparents love of the Borders’ beauty history ‘rubbed off’ on him. With Borders Journeys, this is Ian’s opportunity to share the beauty, history and culture of the Scottish Borders, Dumfries & Galloway and Northumberland with visitors from home and abroad. Ian provides more than just historical facts; he tells real local stories that his parents and grandparents told him. With his trusted minibus Jeannie, they will escort and charm their visitors by promoting the diversity of the region.

Ian’s hobbies include travelling, theatre, cinema, concerts, music, cooking, reading, history and genealogy. Socially he loves spending time with his family and friends, especially spoiling his nephew and niece.

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!

Excerpt from: ‘The Lay of the Last Minstrel’
Sir Walter Scott