Bob Hobkirk

Bob Hobkirk was a shepherd and fiddler who spent most of his working life at Colterscleuch, Teviothead and Hawkslaw, Bonchester.

He was born in 1921 in Westerkirk, near Langholm, into a musical family where his father played the pipes and his mother the melodeon.

At 14, he was inspired to learn the fiddle after hearing Jimmy Potts playing the instrument. Largely self-taught, he learned to play many tunes from gramophone records.

He was Scottish Fiddle Champion on three occasions.

He played with Yehudi Menuhin in the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, in 1985, and performed in Russia several times, as well as in Denmark and Armenia.

Into his seventies, he regularly taught and encouraged young musicians throughout Scotland, even travelling as far as Orkney.

He died in 2002.

His influential playing can be heard on the Borders Fiddles CD.