The Tweed Valley Railway Path
About 20 years ago I decided to try and get fit by taking up jogging. Suffice to say it didn’t last, but I gave it a go for a year or so. One of my regular routes was to leave my house on Peebles Road, run up the pavement to Caerlee Corner then down the steps towards the Tweed. At this point you had the same choice as you would face today - hop over the fence towards the river (The Waterside) or head in either direction along the disused railway line. No trains have run on this line since 1962 so no danger of collision with a locomotive. No danger of collision either with a bike or pedestrian. The difference between then and now is that this was a decade before this became a surfaced path, and it was not well used at all. For a start it was pretty uncomfortable - the ballast which had once held sleepers was still in place. This rock, which has to be sharp edged to bind together, was not pleasant to walk or run along, god forbid cycle. Still, a small but committed bunch of people did use the old railway however we are talking in the dozens, not thousands. Fast forward 20 years and this path has tens of thousands of cyclists, dog walkers, horse riders, hikers, runners, roller bladers and buggies using it every year. A textbook example of the universally misquoted line ‘build it and they will come’. So let’s talk a bit about the Tweed Valley Railway Path, beginning with the late railway itself.
The Galashiels, Innerleithen and Peebles railway, operated by North British Railway, operated for just under a century, from 1864 to 1962. It was an extension of the Peebles line which took passengers into Edinburgh via Penicuik, Roslin and Bonnyrigg before joining the Waverley Line near Eskbank. Beeching Cuts are the oft quoted reason for the closure but my view is the rise of the motor car and road use is the underlying cause of the huge reduction in rail lines in the UK. My views on our car dependancy can be saved for another blog!! Either way, we have now been railway free in this part of Tweeddale for 60 years. Our station is a private residence and it’s unlikely we will ever see trains here again. Thankfully however the line has been given a second life, after years of abandonment. In 2011 it was announced that a section of the old railway would become a tarmac path. The project cost £800,000 and was funded by a combination of the Scottish Government, SBC and Sustrans. 800k seems pretty good value to me looking from a distance of a decade - it’s extremely well used and offers a great way to travel in the Tweed Valley. That initial section included a detour through Cardrona Village (“a unique style of country living” as the huge billboards selling the houses proclaimed back in 1999), where quiet roads offer a pleasant link on a section where no trace of the track could be seen. The first stage was completed in May 2013 with the elegant Woodend Bridge giving a complete, tarred and traffic free route between Peebles and Innerleithen. In my opinion this path opening up has been transformative for the Tweed Valley and shows that a, relatively, modest investment at Government level can make such a difference to how an area perceives itself.
A few years later more pennies were coughed up, this time £300,000, to extend the path to Walkerburn. This section of the path doesn’t follow the old railway across The Tweed at Haugh Head Farm (Haughheid to locals!). Instead it hugs the northern bank of the river through Pirn Dairy farm and adjacent to the mound and Putts Pool, a former meander of the Tweed which is now an informal nature reserve. As a former resident of Walkerburn I can confirm this safe and dry path linking The ‘Burn to its larger neighbour is a massive improvement to the old options of the hideous pavement next to the speedway that is the A72 or the cow shit strewn waterside. Another brilliant addition to the area, the hope is that compromises can be found with landowners and pennies loosed from coffers to extend the route towards The Peel and Clovenfords. Never say never…
One thing that definitely is happening is a similar cycle path between Peebles and Eddleston. This will not follow the same route as the railway, there have been challenges with landowners, however it will be a fantastic car free route for cyclists and pedestrians and you hope can help do for the Eddleston area what the Railways path has done in and around Innerleithen. My view now is anything that gets people out of cars and trying more so called active travel options is a brilliant thing so bring it on.
I hope you enjoyed this wee story of the Railway Path, I suspect I’ll revisit it again in future blogs! I wanted to end by giving a big shout out to the volunteers from Peeblesshire Paths Network and Innerleithen Community Trust who maintain the path. The work you do often goes unnoticed but it is massively appreciated.
