Crook Inn

Crook Inn
Peeblesshire
The Crook Inn
Type:	Inn
Location
Location:	55°31’25"N, 3°24’34"W
History
	Inn
Information

The Crook Inn is an inn which stands alone beside the road in the hills of Peeblesshire, near the village of Tweedsmuir. It is to be found by the A701 road between Broughton and Moffat.

This inn is one of many claimants to be the oldest inn in Scotland. Robert Burns wrote "Willie Wastle's Wife" there. In the early 20th century a halt was built on the Talla Railway to serve it. The inn attracted much passing trade from the labourers who were building the Talla Reservoir, which the railway was built to serve.

The hotel was refurbished in 1936 in the then-current Art Deco style, and retains many of the features installed at that time. It has also, over the years, become a place of pilgrimage for members of the Porteous family, visiting the site of nearby Hawkshaw, their former ancestral home on the hills above Tweeddale and the Fruid Reservoir. A reunion of Porteous family members was traditionally held at the inn every five years, attracting visitors from all over the world. In September 2010 it is planned that the celebrations will be held nearby, as the inn is temporarily unavailable.

The proposals to convert the historic inn into apartments met with much local opposition and the plans were rejected by the councillors of Tweeddale West in March 2008. Following refusal the present owner lodged an appeal with the Department for Planning and Environmental Appeals (DPEA), a department of the Scottish Government.

On 2 February 2009, following an appeal hearing on 18 November 2008, a decision notice was issued by the DPEA which finally dismissed the appeal. This meant that planning permission was not granted for the change of use of the historic Crook Inn to residential accommodation, giving scope for the inn to reopen once again.

In January 2013, after a lengthy campaign by the Tweedsmuir community to secure ownership of the Crook Inn in order to reinvigorate it, the Tweedsmuir Community Company raised the asking price of £160,000 and bought the property, which has been refurbished with taxpayers' money.

Outside links

• Tweedsmuir Community Company
• Information-Britain
• Porteous Research Project: Description of the Crook Inn in the early 20th century
• News story from the Peeblesshire News