This iconic river, stretching nearly 100 miles from its source in the Moffat Hills to the coast at Berwick, is writ large in the history and literature of the Borders. The wider catchment and its tributaries include some beautiful lochs and reservoirs, and a range of habitats that is home to a wide collection of wildlife. The river itself is the most important salmon fishing river in Europe and throughout the season anglers are to be found quietly pursuing their elusive prey.

“There’s mony a water, great or sma’,

Gaes singing in his siller tune,

Through glen and heuch, and hope and shaw,

Beneath the sunlicht or the moon:

But set us in our fishing shoon

Between the Caddon burn and Peel,

And syne we’ll cross the heather broun

By fair Tweedside, at Ashestiel!”

[from Ballade of the Tweed by Andrew Lang, 1844-1912]

Eddleston Water has been associated with flooding in Peebles for very many years, most recently in October 2021. Over the past decade measures have been introduced throughout the catchment to mitigate this using natural systems such as re-meandering, flood ponds, tree planting and leaky flood barriers. You can read more about this on the Tweed Forum’s web site here.

On December 30th 2022, the Tweed started to rise as a result of prolonged heavy rain. The level peaked in the evening - too late to take photographs. These images were taken the following morning, around 10.00am, by which time the levels had significantly fallen.