West Linton is a village and civil parish in southerly Scotland, on the A702. It was formerly in the area of Peeblesshire, yet given that city government re-organisation in the mid-1990s it is now part of Scottish Borders. Most of its locals are commuters, owing to the town's closeness to Edinburgh, which is 16 miles (26 km) to the north east. West Linton has a long background, and also holds a yearly standard event called the Whipman Play. The town of Linton is of old beginning. Its name derives from a Celtic aspect (cognate with the modern-day Irish Gaelic linn, Scottish Gaelic linne, and also modern Welsh "Llyn") meaning a lake or pool, a pool in a river, or a network (as in Loch Linnhe, part of which is called An Linne Dhubh, the black swimming pool, or Dublin, an Anglicisation of dubh and linn, implying black pool) and the Gaelic "dun" Welsh "racket"), for a fortress, strengthened area, or military camp (related to the modern English town, by way of the Saxon "tun", a ranch or collection of dwellings), and is seemingly proper, as the village appears to have actually been bordered by lakes, pools as well as marshes. At one time it was referred to as Lyntoun Roderyck, determined probably with Roderyck or Riderch, King of Strathclyde, whose territory included this area, or with a regional chieftain of that name. The Scottish Gaelic variation of the place name is a partial translation, Ruairidh being a Gaelic type of Roderick. The prefix "West" was acquired lots of centuries later to clear up the difference from East Linton in East Lothian.