Welcome to Earlston Paths

Earlston Paths Group are an enthusiastic bunch of local people from the Earlston and Redpath communities who enjoy walking, horse riding and cycling and have a desire to see opportunities supporting these activities in the local area developed and improved.

Although there are numerous footpaths and Rights of Way in the Earlston area there are very few clearly way marked paths. To a great extent the area is largely unexplored by many locals and indeed visitors to the Scottish Borders.

The idea to form a local group came about because many other communities had already done so e.g. Melrose, Jedburgh, and Lauder which had consequently been able to improve outdoor access in their areas. Introduction of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code also supported our desire to develop local facilities. Additionally, there were potential benefits for our communities in the areas of health, commerce and involvement.

Initial informal meetings in early 2005 confirmed that there was interest in forming a group to take the idea forward. With help from the Scottish Borders Council Access Officer and an enormous level of support and guidance from the Scottish Borders Rural Partnership, the Group was formally constituted on 7 June 2005.

We have a good range of skills and experience in the Group and these include administration, forestry, RSPB, horse riding, photography, path mapping and of course enthusiasm!

Without going into all the technical bits of our constitution, our aims are broadly to develop a sustainable path network in and around Earlston and in the process look to provide open access for walkers, horse riders and cyclists. Key elements in doing this include:

• social inclusion
• promoting health
• sustainable transport and safer routes to school
• reflecting the interests of both landowners and users
• improved way marking and interpretation
• provision of information including a booklet of walks in the area
• attraction of development funding to support all of these objectives

We have already had one major success: our community consultation exercise which was held during February 2006 to gauge what local people currently do in relation to the three core activities and how they would like to see these develop in future. We had an encouraging response to a questionnaire delivered to households in Earlston, Redpath and surrounding areas and an equally good turnout at an “open day”. The information gathered from both events will help form our future plans and we hope to publish the results shortly.

As a group we are realistic enough to recognise that we will not achieve all our goals overnight and although we have come a long way in a relatively short time we know that we have at least a couple of years work ahead.

Please take time to look at all our web site and contact us if you want to know more.