Crook Inn
Encyclopedia
Scottish Borders
The Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...
, near the village of Tweedsmuir
Tweedsmuir
The village of Tweedsmuir is a village and civil parish situated from the source of the River Tweed, in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland....
on the A701 road
A701 road
-Route:The A701 leaves Dumfries and travels north to meet the A74 at Beattock. It thens joins the A74 for a short spell before branching off to the north-east towards Moffat and ultimately Edinburgh....
between Broughton
Broughton, Tweeddale
Broughton is a village in Tweeddale in the Scottish Borders. Towns and villages nearby include Biggar, Drumelzier, Kilbucho, and Peebles.The village has a post office, village store, bowling green, tennis courts, a village hall, petrol station and garage, and an art gallery...
and Moffat
Moffat
Moffat is a former burgh and spa town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, lying on the River Annan, with a population of around 2,500. The most notable building in the town is the Moffat House Hotel, designed by John Adam...
. It is one of many claimants to be the oldest inn in Scotland. Robert Burns
Robert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
wrote "Willie Wastle's Wife" there. In the early 20th century a halt was built on the Talla Railway
Talla Railway
The Talla Railway was a reservoir construction railway in Scotland active from 1897 to 1910. Located in the Scottish Borders, its most substantial engineering feature was the Tweed Viaduct, a 100 foot girder bridge built to carry the railway and water pipeline across the River Tweed at...
to serve it. The inn attracted much passing trade from the labourers who were building the Talla Reservoir
Talla Reservoir
Talla Reservoir, located a mile from Tweedsmuir, Scottish Borders, Scotland, is an earth-work dam fed by Talla Water. The reservoir is supplemented by water from the nearby Fruid Reservoir...
, which the railway was built to serve.
The hotel was refurbished in 1936 in the then-current Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
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
Porteous family
-History:The earliest records for members of the Porteous family in Peeblesshire date back to the early part of the fifteenth century.The earliest possible reference, according to Lord Lyon King of Arms in Edinburgh, is to a Guillaume Porteuse , who arrived from Normandy c 1400 under the patronship...
, visiting the site of nearby Hawkshaw, their former ancestral home on the hills above Tweeddale and the Fruid Water
Fruid Water
Fruid Water is a small reservoir in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, UK, near Menzion.-See also:*Baddinsgill Reservoir*Megget Reservoir*Talla Reservoir*West Water Reservoir*List of reservoirs and dams in the United Kingdom-External links:*...
reservoir
Reservoir
A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...
. 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 means that planning permission has not been granted for the change of use of the historic Crook Inn to flatted accommodation. This gives scope for the inn to reopen once again.