Neidpath Castle
Peebles, Scotland

taken 9/1/98
by Roger Peeples --

Note the Heather in the forgound

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Neidpath Castle - The Name:

The word Neidpath is pronounced as Needpath, the neid as the English need. Different spellings occur through the years ranging from Nidpath to Niedpath. Blaeu's atlas of 1654 which uses Timothy Pont's survey of 1608 shows the word spelt as Needpetth.
Various solutions have been put forward as to the source of the name. One version traces the name to the British 'Nyddu' which meant twist or turn i.e. describing a winding path. Why this should apply only to Neidpath when the river Tweed twists and turns throughout its 96 mile journey to the sea is not made clear. Another version delves into the Danish language puffing forward the Danish 'Nod' as the answer, where the o pronounced as the French u gives us 'nolt' or 'Neat' meaning cattle and therefore a road used by cattle. Such cattle would have been surefooted indeed to climb the banks around Neidpath.

While yet another candidate suggests that the other word for the bale-fire (beacon) ie needfire - origin a fire produced a friction of two pieces of wood, is the basis of Neidpath. Again we are not informed why Neidpath should be honoured by the name in a period when all the castles possessed a beacon.

My own solution is rather simpler, in that the Neid is derived from the word 'nether' or 'neider' ie lower. Therefore the Nether path (lower path) to distinguish it from the Over path (higher path) that previously went up over the hill behind Castle wood which emerged at the White Yett, the original entrance gateway to the Castle avenue. The other 'over' road to Peebles passed over the hill to the south of the Castle above South Park Wood over 'The Sware'.

c. James MacDonald.
source: "A guide to Neidpath Castle, Peebles Scotland"