West Linton
West Linton is a town and also civil parish in southern Scotland, on the A702. It was formerly in the county of Peeblesshire, but because local government re-organisation in the mid-1990s it is currently part of Scottish Borders. Most of its citizens are commuters, owing to the village's closeness to Edinburgh, which is 16 miles (26 km) to the north eastern. West Linton has a lengthy history, as well as holds an annual traditional event called the Whipman Play. The village of Linton is of ancient origin. Its name stems from a Celtic component (cognate with the modern-day Irish Gaelic linn, Scottish Gaelic linne, as well as modern-day Welsh "Llyn") indicating 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, suggesting black pool) as well as the Gaelic "dun" Welsh "cacophony"), for a fortress, fortified place, or military camp (related to the contemporary English community, using the Saxon "tun", a farm or collection of homes), and also is seemingly ideal, as the village shows up to have been surrounded by lakes, swimming pools and marshes. At once it was called Lyntoun Roderyck, identified probably with Roderyck or Riderch, King of Strathclyde, whose area included this location, or with a local chieftain of that name. The Scottish Gaelic variation of the name is a partial translation, Ruairidh being a Gaelic type of Roderick. The prefix "West" was obtained numerous centuries later to make clear the distinction from East Linton in East Lothian.