As celebrations start in Peebles on Sunday, the team at the Live Borders Museum and Gallery look back at Beltane’s gone by...
Originally held on the first Monday in May, ‘Beltane’ marks the Celtic festival which celebrates the coming of summer. The word originates from the Celtic God ‘Bel’, meaning bright one and the Gaelic word ‘teine’ meaning fire.
The poet King James I applauded Peebles and the excitement of the Beltane Fair day in his poem ‘Peebles to the Play’ written in the 1430s, while at the market cross in 1621, James VI granted Peebles the right to a Beltane Fair.
Sports including wrestling and archery were key, but the main event was the horse racing which was first recorded in 1625 and ran from Horsburgh to the East Port.
Sixty years later, with the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897, ‘the Riding of the Marches’ was reintroduced, and a huge procession filled the town, including 72 horses, the town band, Peebles Cycling Club and the Fire Brigade.
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