Lauderdale, an ancient district of Berwickshire, the western one of the three into which the county was divided. In geographical distribution, and agricultural properties, Berwickshire is all strictly divisible into simply the Lammermuirs and the Merse; the upper and the lower parts of Lauderdale belonging respectively to these just as distinctly as any other part of the county. The limits of Lauderdale, as regards the usage of calling it a distinct district, cannot be defined, and must probably be understood as including simply the basin of Leader Water and its tributaries, so far as the basin is in Berwickshire. Even anciently the limits appear to have been very different in successive periods, and to have marked fluctuations both in the kind and in the extent of the civil jurisdiction within them. Maps of Lauderdale, Merse, and Lammermuir were made by Timothy Pont in the reign of Charles I., and inserted in Blaeu's Atlas Scotiæ The author of the Caledonia -guided apparently by these maps-states the area of Lauderdale to be 105 square miles, that of Lammermuir to be 138½, and that of the Merse to be 202½ At the abolition of herditary jurisdictions the Earl of Lauderdale received the same compensation for the regality of Thirlstane as for the bailiery of Lauderdale-£500. For a notice of the noble family to whom the district gives title, see Thirlstane Castle.

(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)