West Linton is a village and civil parish in southerly Scotland, on the A702. It was previously in the region of Peeblesshire, but because local government re-organisation in the mid-1990s it is currently part of Scottish Borders. Many of its residents are travelers, owing to the town's distance to Edinburgh, which is 16 miles (26 kilometres) to the north eastern. West Linton has a long background, and also holds an annual standard celebration called the Whipman Play. The village of Linton is of old origin. Its name derives from a Celtic element (cognate with the contemporary Irish Gaelic linn, Scottish Gaelic linne, and modern Welsh "Llyn") implying 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 pool, or Dublin, an Anglicisation of dubh and also linn, implying black pool) and also the Gaelic "dun" Welsh "din"), for a fortress, strengthened place, or army camp (related to the modern English town, using the Saxon "tun", a farm or collection of dwellings), and is obviously ideal, as the town shows up to have actually been bordered by lakes, pools and marshes. At once it was referred to as Lyntoun Roderyck, determined probably with Roderyck or Riderch, King of Strathclyde, whose region included this location, or with a regional chieftain of that name. The Scottish Gaelic version of the place name is a partial translation, Ruairidh being a Gaelic form of Roderick. The prefix "West" was obtained numerous centuries later to make clear the difference from East Linton in East Lothian.