Eddleston and Peebles – A Concrete Map and a Medieval Kirk
A few hours.
The route
At Eddleston the whole of Scotland is laid out in concrete, its mountains and islands rising from a basin of water: a relief map built by a Polish team in the 1970s.
Down the road in Peebles, there's a hot chocolate at Cocoa Black and the ruins of the medieval Cross Kirk, a short walk away.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The day
Eddleston and Peebles
The map of Scotland at Eddleston first, then into Peebles for a hot chocolate by the Cuddy Bridge and the old friary church on foot.
Great Polish Map of Scotland
An attraction
The Great Polish Map of Scotland lies in the grounds of Barony Castle, a hotel at Eddleston, four miles north of Peebles. There is parking at the hotel, and signs lead to the map. It was the idea of Jan Tomasik, a Polish sergeant once stationed in Galashiels, and a team from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków built it over six summers from 1974. It measures about 50 metres by 40, with the mountains raised five times their true height and water from the Dean Burn for the seas. A path runs right round its rim.
About 10 min by car
Cocoa Black
Hot chocolate
Cocoa Black is in Peebles, by the Cuddy Bridge, and there is parking behind. Ruth and David Hinks began in 2008 at a kitchen table, and the patisserie café now pours hot chocolates in flavours from gingerbread and orange to salted caramel, praline and mint. The cake fridge holds mousses, tarts and cheesecakes, with plenty of low-gluten and vegan choices, and on a dry day there's a riverside garden to sit out in. Weekends can be busy. Take a box of chocolates home.
About 5 min on foot
Cross Kirk, Peebles
An attraction
Cross Kirk is a short walk from Cocoa Black, in a quiet part of north-west Peebles, its tall ruined walls standing in a grassy enclosure. A cross and relics of St Nicholas, the saint behind the story of Santa Claus, are said to have been found here in the 1200s, and King Alexander III had a church built. It became a house of Trinitarian friars, the Redfriars, in 1474, when the bell tower was added. After the Reformation it was the parish kirk of Peebles until 1784.
If it rains
Bring a waterproof for the map and Cross Kirk, which are out in the open.
Photographs by Scott McCafferty, Cocoa Black and Dave via Google