Post Road through the Meldons Show path on map
Start location: wood edge, northeast of White Rig ( NT 224 513 )
End location: Lyne, near Peebles ( NT 203 410 )
Geographical area: Lothian and Borders
Path type: Civil Road
Path distance: 11.5km
Accessibility info: Suitable for bikes, Suitable for horses, Suitable for pedestrians
Route Description
From the edge of the woods northeast of White Rig, head southeast along the minor road to the crossroads west of Shiplaw. Follow the track which forms the crossroad’s southward arm for 4km by Stewarton, and onwards for 3km to pass between Black Meldon and White Meldon, there picking up the track to Lyne.
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 However, by the time of the OS 6" first edition maps (1843-1882), the old road had been superseded by the present (more twisty) minor road between Lyne and Eddleston - as today's road is shown as having milestones marked with the distance to Edinburgh and by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.
