Post Road through the Meldons
Start location: Lyne, near Peebles (NT 203 410)
End location: wood edge, northwest of White Rig (NT 224 513)
Geographical area: Lothian and Borders
Path Type: Civil Road
Path distance: 11.5km
Accessibility info: Suitable for pedestrians, Suitable for Bikes, Suitable for horses
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Route DescriptionNewsflash: the Scottish Borders Walking Festival 2017 includes at least one route incorporating part of the Post Road through the Meldons. Running from 3-9 September, the base for the 23rd year of this popuar festival is Peebles and Tweeddale. Other historic routes featured are the Gypsy Glen Drove Road, the Minchmoor Track, Stobo Old Drove Road, the Cauldstane Slap and Cross Borders Drove Road, the Clovenfords Turnpike and the Old Biggar Road.
We have no survey of the whole of this route and would be very grateful to receive one.
OS Landranger 73 (Peebles, Galashiels & surrounding area)
Heritage Information
This Track of Old Road can be seen on the (c.1999) 1:25,000 OS map. It appears to have provided a level and readily constructed road with few bridges or banks from Lyne to Leadburn - this route will likely have been much drier than the parallel route in the easily flooded valley bottom of the Eddleston Water. The old route is thought to be one of many routes linking Edinburgh with Moffat and used by mail coaches.
The route is evidently old as its line from the Meldons via Stewarton and northwards is shown on Roy's lowland mapping (1752-1755). However, by the time of the OS 6" first edition maps (1843-1882), the old road had been superseded by the present (more twisty) minor road between Lyne and Eddleston - as today's road is shown as having milestones marked with the distance to Edinburgh and by the second edition (1892-1905) is also clearly mapped as being more important than the older road.
The Old Post Road is also thought to have been in use as a droving route.
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