Carlops, Peeblesshire

Historical Description

CARLOPS, a village, in the parish of LINTON, county of PEEBLES, containing 153 inhabitants. This village is irregularly built on the banks of a rivulet falling into the North Esk. It is chiefly inhabited by persons employed in weaving cotton for the manufacturers of Glasgow and Paisley, and coal and limestone are wrought in the immediate neighbourhood. Carlops is a popular abbreviation of Carling's Loups, localities in the vicinity, so named in allusion to acts of a witch of former times, who is said to have furnished to Allan Ramsay the character of Mause in the Gentle Shepherd, the scenery of which poem is in the neighbourhood. Near the village is a rock of freestone, impending over a narrow glen; it is called Harbour Craig, and, in this sequestered place, has a strikingly romantic appearance.