The Crook Inn is an

inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway. Before the advent of motorized transportation, they also provided accomm ...

in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

, near the village of

Tweedsmuir Tweedsmuir () is a village and civil parishes in Scotland, civil parish in Tweeddale, the Scottish Borders Council district, southeastern Scotland. Geography The village is set in a valley, with the rolling hills and burns on both sides, cover ...

on the A701 road between Broughton and

Moffat Moffat is a burgh and parish in Dumfriesshire. Part of the Dumfries and Galloway local authority area in Scotland, it lies on the River Annan, with a population of around 2,500. It was a centre of the wool trade and a spa town. Moffat is arou ...

. It is one of many claimants to be the oldest inn in Scotland. It was licensed in 1604.

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the List of national poets, national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the be ...

wrote "Willie Wastle's Wife" there. It has served as a coaching inn, a Post Office and source of employment. In the early 20th century a halt was built on the

Talla Railway The Talla Railway was a privately constructed railway line in southern Scotland under the Edinburgh Water Company. It was built 1895–97 to aid the construction of the Talla Reservoir, to serve the water demand of Edinburgh. The railway was ab ...

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 Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

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. 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 if it could be purchased. 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. The Tweedsmuir Community Company obtained a Development Grant from Big Lottery in 2014 to redesign and renovate the historic Crook Inn, with designs undertaken by WTArchitecture, Edinburgh. The plans obtained planning permission in 2015. The rest of the land at the site was purchased in 2015 with grants from the Scottish Land Fund, SSE Clyde Border and the Infinis Glenkerie Community Funds. Grants are being sought to create a multi-faceted Crook Inn Community Hub to serve the Upper Tweed community and tourism. Since then nothing has happened and the building continues to deteriorate. It is listed on the

Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland The Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland records buildings of national architectural or historic interest which are considered to be under threat. The list is maintained by Historic Environment Scotland (HES). The register was established in 1 ...

References

External links

Official siteInformation-Britain
* ttp://www.peeblesshirenews.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=815&format=html News story from the ''Peeblesshire News'' {{coord, 55.5236, -3.4094, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Hotels in the Scottish Borders Tourist attractions in the Scottish Borders 17th-century establishments in Scotland Hotels established in the 17th century Art Deco architecture in Scotland Tweeddale

See also

References

External links