Presented by The Tweeddale Society - click here for tickets

with Stewart Wilson & Edward Shoote

Heritage storyteller Stewart Wilson traces mountain biking’s rise in Tweeddale, while Ed Shoote outlines the Caerlee Mill development supporting Innerleithen’s globally renowned cycling industry.

Stewart Wilson is a heritage storyteller, blogger and award-winning tour guide based here in the Tweed Valley. His tours hold Tripadvisor’s Travellers’ Choice award. Ed Shoote works for South of Scotland Enterprise as an Economic Infrastrucutre Development Specialist. He has been programme lead on the mountain bike innovation project in the Tweed Valley since 2021.

Stewart explores how mountain biking first came to Tweeddale in the early 1980s, and the people who helped it grow into the biggest driver of visitors to the South of Scotland. It is very much a social history – a story of industry and local pioneers. It is this “outsider’s eye” that Stewart brought to the project, a perspective rooted in curiosity, local knowledge and an interest in how people shape place.

Ed will talk about the origins and background of the new Caerlee Mill development that will support the highly successful bike industry to grow around Innerleithen. The talk will explain how the facility builds on the great work the community has done and continues to do, to make the area a biking centre of world renown.