West Linton is a village and civil parish in southerly Scotland, on the A702. It was formerly in the area of Peeblesshire, but since local government re-organisation in the mid-1990s it is now part of Scottish Borders. Many of its residents are commuters, owing to the village's distance to Edinburgh, which is 16 miles (26 km) to the north east. West Linton has a lengthy background, and holds an annual typical celebration called the Whipman Play. The village of Linton is of old origin. Its name derives from a Celtic component (cognate with the modern Irish Gaelic linn, Scottish Gaelic linne, as well as modern-day Welsh "Llyn") suggesting a lake or pool, a pool in a river, or a channel (as in Loch Linnhe, part of which is called An Linne Dhubh, the black swimming pool, or Dublin, an Anglicisation of dubh and linn, indicating black swimming pool) and the Gaelic "dun" Welsh "din"), for a fortress, strengthened area, or army camp (related to the modern English town, using the Saxon "tun", a farm or collection of houses), and also is evidently proper, as the town appears to have actually been surrounded by lakes, pools and also marshes. At once it was referred to as Lyntoun Roderyck, determined perhaps with Roderyck or Riderch, King of Strathclyde, whose territory included this location, or with a neighborhood chieftain of that name. The Scottish Gaelic version of the name is a partial translation, Ruairidh being a Gaelic form of Roderick. The prefix "West" was obtained several centuries later to clear up the difference from East Linton in East Lothian.