Tibbie Tamson

Isabella Thomson (d.1790), usually known by the dialect form of her name Tibbie Tamson, was a Scottish woman who lived in the royal burgh of Selkirk in the Scottish Borders during the 18th century. Her isolated grave is a notable landmark, located on a hillside approximately 1.5 miles north of Selkirk at .

Death and burial Few facts are known about Thomson's life. There is a local tradition that Thomson, who lived in the Kirk Wynd in Selkirk, was a poor woman of weak intellect She is said to have been accused of stealing a length of yarn, At this period in Scotland as in England, suicides were often given a 'profane' burial unless family or friends were able to arrange interment secretly. Accordingly she was placed in a pauper's coffin of deal, which was dragged out of the town while her neighbours threw stones and insults,

At some point after 1790 a rough stone was placed on the grave with "I H / I THOMSON / FS 1790"

The 19th century essayist John Brown said that the "grave [was] known and feared the country round", while in more recent times it has been described as "a memorial to the worst excesses of small-town unkindness". Each year as part of their traditional perambulation of Selkirk's commons, members of the Selkirk Common Riding Organisation pass by the place and in modern times place a wreath at the grave in remembrance of her.