West Linton is a town and civil parish in southerly Scotland, on the A702. It was previously in the region of Peeblesshire, however considering that local government re-organisation in the mid-1990s it is currently part of Scottish Borders. A lot of its homeowners are commuters, owing to the town's closeness to Edinburgh, which is 16 miles (26 km) to the north eastern. West Linton has a long background, and also holds a yearly traditional festival called the Whipman Play. The village of Linton is of old beginning. Its name derives from a Celtic component (cognate with the modern-day Irish Gaelic linn, Scottish Gaelic linne, and also modern Welsh "Llyn") implying 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 as well as linn, meaning black swimming pool) as well as the Gaelic "dun" Welsh "hullabaloo"), for a citadel, fortified area, or military camp (pertaining to the contemporary English community, using the Saxon "tun", a farm or collection of residences), as well as is evidently suitable, as the village appears to have actually been surrounded by lakes, pools and marshes. At one time it was called Lyntoun Roderyck, identified possibly with Roderyck or Riderch, King of Strathclyde, whose territory included this location, or with a neighborhood 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 obtained several centuries later to clarify the difference from East Linton in East Lothian.