Newcastleton

Newcastleton, is a village in the Scottish Borders, a few miles from the border with England, on the Liddel Water. It is the site of Hermitage Castle.

Newcastleton / Copshaw Holm
  • Scottish Gaelic: Baile a' Chaisteil Nuadh
  • Scots: Copshaw Howm, colloquially Copshie
Newcastleton / Copshaw Holm
Location within the Scottish Borders
Population768 (2011 census)
LanguageEnglish
Southern Scots
OS grid referenceNY480875
Civil parish
Council area
Lieutenancy area
CountryScotland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townNEWCASTLETON
Postcode districtTD9
Dialling code013873
PoliceScotland
FireScottish
AmbulanceScottish
UK Parliament
Scottish Parliament

Newcastleton is 10 mi (16 km) east of Langholm, 17 mi (27 km) south of Hawick, 24 mi (39 km) north of Carlisle and 74 mi (119 km) south of Edinburgh.

History

Newcastleton was built as a result of the land clearances in the 1790s when people were forced to move from Old Castleton village. There has been a folk festival at Newcastleton since 1970. "Copshaw Holm" (another name for the village) is celebrated in the song "Copshawholm Fair", written by David Anderson in 1830, as sung by Willie Scott among others.

Douglas Square, Newcastleton

Facilities
Newcastleton War Memorial

A community-owned unmanned fuel station opened after much community fund raising in 2018.[1][2][3]

The former Townfoot Church (erected in 1803) now houses the Liddesdale Heritage Centre, a museum devoted to the culture and history of Liddesdale. Newcastleton Forest is near the village, and is home to one of the 7stanes mountain bike centres.

Newcastleton is the location of Whithaugh Park, an outdoor activity and residential centre run by Rock UK, offering groups of young people the opportunity to try out a variety of different outdoor activities. The village also possesses the amenity of an astroturf multi-sport pitch (Polysport), as well as a gym and football pitch.

A nine-hole golf course is on the Holm Hill.

Transport

The village has direct bus services to Hawick and Carlisle. Newcastleton railway station provided rail services from 1862 until its closure in 1969 as part of the Beeching cuts.

Events

A traditional music festival is held every year in Newcastleton, around July.[4] The Holm Show is an annual traditional agricultural event.[5]

Since 1998, an annual light-hearted common riding was established, being held on the same weekend as the music festival. The elected principal to represent the event is referred to as The Tub, aided by the principal's Right and Left Legged men/women, wearing the village colour of yellow. Unlike other ridings in the Borders, the Copshaw Common Riding is done on bicycle.[6] The Copshie participants parody the over-formality of nearby Langholm and other pageants, by proceeding on bikes, giving four cheers instead of three, toasting with tequila instead of whisky, and not taking themselves too seriously.[7]

Newcastleton has also welcomed 12 and 24 Hours of Exposure (the UK solo mountain bike championships), and part of Kielder 100, another mountain bike event.

See also

References
  1. "Village celebrates petrol pump return". 29 March 2018 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  2. Barry, Maggie (15 March 2018). "Villagers in Newcastleton man the pumps". dailyrecord.
  3. "First fuel in remote Scottish Borders village for first time in a decade". News and Star.
  4. "Festivals | Scottish Borders Folk".
  5. "Copshaw is holm to its 124th village show". www.thesouthernreporter.co.uk.
  6. "About". Copshaw Common Riding. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  7. "Grassroots folk: Scotland's oldest 'trad' music festival and is proud of its down-to-earth ethos". The Scotsman. 3 July 2010. Retrieved 9 August 2019.

Media related to Newcastleton at Wikimedia Commons


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