The County

This was once the Harrow Inn from where, in the days of coach and horses, the coach left for Edinburgh, quite a journey in those far off days.

It took about 9 hours, I believe. You could walk to Edinburgh in much less than that time along the present road, but the route was different then, keeping in part, to high ground above the valley that the road follows now.



The arch on the right would have led to stables, and the main door to the Inn would have been the door behind the pram in the photo.



In the last few years the pub's interior has undergone a major refurbishment and is vastly different to what it was like. Wooden floors, chunky wooden tables and high stools, a "snug" with its own bar and more wooden furniture, warmed by a log fire.... The main bar has a large TV screen to allow customers to watch football games, and next to it is the dining area with old tables, chairs and benches, old fashioned wallpaper on the walls, and various old historical prints and paintings on display.



However the most interesting part of the old inn is behind the window to the extreme left of the building, on the ground floor, next to the red telephone kiosk. Behind the very ordinary facade is a thick-walled barrel-vaulted room, completely built from stone, as a place of refuge and defence, probably in the 16th century. It was called a bastle house, which was a corruption of the word bastille in French.