Home Report Peebles

Peebles is a town and former Royal Burgh of roughly 9,000 residents in the Scottish Borders. The town lies at the confluence of the River Tweed and Eddleston Water and is about 24 miles south of Edinburgh, and 50 miles southeast of Glasgow. Peebles is formerly important as the main county town for the historic county of Peeblesshire. In industrial times through the 19th and 20th centuries, wool and textiles were important industries of the area. This gradually declined as most industries did throughout Scotland until the last one closed in 2015. It was also a popular tourist town when health tourism flourished, and people would come to the hydropathic establishments of the town.

The character of Peebles changed throughout these years of course, and today, Peebles is primarily a commuter town for residents working in Edinburgh. Tourism still plays a part in the local economy, albeit in a diminished way. Most residents travel to work in Edinburgh city, the larger town of Penicuik, or in nearby Galashiels. As such, Peebles is well connected by road, the A72 cuts through the town allowing for westward and eastward travel, and the A703 offers onward travel north to Penicuik and Edinburgh. There is no train station for the town, this is unfortunately now disused, and the closest stations are located in the nearby town of Galashiels and the village of Tweedbank to the east. There is much attention on developing the Borders’ railway network due to the economic benefits, and the town might get its own line opened again eventually.

In terms of amenities and things to do, Peebles has a bustling scene of local independents to your normal chain stores that are diverse and well recognised as so. Peebles also has an 18-hole golf course, located at the upper end of Kirkland Street. The golf club was formerly owned and run by the local council before being taken over and run by its own members. The Eastgate Theatre on the High Street has a year-round programme of music, drama, dance, talks and classes for children and adults. The town also has four major annual festivals – the Beltane Festival, Peebles Arts Festival, Tweedlove Bike Festival and Imaginarium all of which are well attended and offer much in the way of entertainment. For walkers, the John Buchan Way starts at the west side of the town. Some of these walkers make use of the hotels, guest houses and campsites in and around the town.

The Tweed Valley is also a particular draw in the area. The Forest Park includes seven forests: Caberston, Cademuir, Cardrona, Glentress, Thornielee, Traquair (Innerleithen) and Yair. There’s a great selection of waymarked walking routes, horse-riding trails, wildlife watching opportunities and lots of other points of interest for visitors coming to this lovely part of southern Scotland. There are also renowned mountain biking centres, most notably 7stanes Glentress, which offers around 50 miles of trails with something for all abilities and 7stanes Innerleithen, with its challenging cross-country and downhill trails.

Moving on to local education for children then, Peebles has three primary schools: Kingsland, Priorsford and the Roman Catholic Halyrude Primary School. Peebles also has the largest secondary school in the Borders, Peebles High School.