Once an important meeting place along the drove road from Teviothead to Liddesdale, Peelbraehope was a farmstead (later a shepherd’s cottage) of which nothing now remains. At the site of its former standing, however – in the hills east of Priesthaugh, at the headwaters of the Penchrise Burn – there is a cairn, commemorating the ancient house and its long inhabitation by the Elliots. At times owned and leased by the Buccleuch estate, Peelbraehope played host to families of Nichols and Armstrongs, but for the most part it was the Elliots who called this bonnie part of the world home. For example, in the late-19th century Peelbraehope was home to two Elliot mothers, who between them gave birth to an impressively prolific twenty-two Elliot offspring. Reputedly, on one occasion one of these mothers delivered herself of twins, and was later found scrubbing the doorstep in preparation for the late-arrival of the doctor. Recently, a gathering of around two-hundred New Zealanders took place, each a descendant of the Elliots of Peelbraehope. The house was eventually evacuated, and presumably demolished, when its lands were incorporated into Stobs Camp’s firing range. The Tinlee Stone lies just to the south.
‘Willie’s away… aboard ship… I went with him to Newcastleton… and there was our last sad silent parting, the last look is engraved on my memory and there it will remain to the last. In a very few moments the train swept him from my sight, it may be almost certain to be forever. May the God of Heaven, Earth and Sea protect and guide him in safety to his destination. God grant he may prosper in his adopted country…’
- extract from a letter written by Mr. Willie Elliot of Peelbraehope about his emigrating son 1882