Tales from the Riverbank

Riverwoods, Destination Tweed’s Tweed Stories and Innerleithen Community Trust invite you to a drop-in creative storytelling and story-gathering event exploring the River Tweed and its river woodlands.

Come along to share your own stories, listen to others, and join in on fun creative activities in a relaxed and welcoming environment.

Flowing through landscape, history and imagination, the River Tweed has long shaped the places and people on its banks. We’d love to know all about your connections to the river and its nature, heritage and community.

Do you have a story about the river’s centuries-old crossings and working woodlands, or memories of playing, fishing, swimming or sitting quietly by the water’s edge? We’ve planned lots of fun ways for you to share your tales at this informal event.

There will be free fresh baking from Holtz Bakery (first come, first served), hot and cold drinks and biscuits.

What to expect

From 1pm-3pm:

Share your tales with Tweed Stories

We’d love to know what makes the river important to you – and we’ve got lots of fun ways you can share your stories and special places.

Show us the places you love on our giant River Tweed map.

Bring a Tweed photo or object and tell us all about it.

Be inspired by stunning images, natural riverside treasures and the watery sounds of the Tweed.

Chat about your memories of the river and tell us what you love or how it has changed. Draw, write or record your tales.

Transport yourself along – or even into – the river with our Tweed greenscreen.

Upload your stories and pictures to the Tweed Stories online archive.

Read and listen to the stories and memories that have already been collected.

You’ll be helping to grow the brilliant community-led Tweed Stories archive, which is gathering precious local knowledge and experiences for the future. This is an important legacy for Destination Tweed’s river revitalisation project and will help inspire interpretation for the new River Tweed Trail (opening in 2028).

Creative activities with Riverwoods

Take part in creative activities exploring the future of rivers and river woodlands. You can create your own zine to take home or contribute to a shared collage imagining what you would like rivers and river woodlands to look like in the future. Everyone is welcome to join in, with activities suitable for all ages and no experience needed. Activities will involve using scissors and glue sticks.

Exploring the Mill Lade with Innerleithen Community Trust

Learn about the history and ecology of Innerleithen’s mill lade, a historic water channel connecting the Leithen Water to the Tweed. Innerleithen Community Trust will be sharing their recent project, delivered as part of the Uncovering the Tweed programme within Destination Tweed, which has helped record, preserve and bring the lade’s story to a wider audience.

Explore the new trail and interpretation work, find out more about the wildlife that uses the lade, and view footage captured by camera traps during the project. There will also be opportunities to see the trail maps, learn more about the route, and take part in a couple of fun activities exploring the lade and its surroundings in a creative way.

Innerleithen Community Trust’s project was supported by a grant from Destination Tweed’s Community Grants Scheme, which is made possible by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

From 3pm-4pm:

We will have an interactive storytelling performance by award-winning local poet and writer Craig Aitchison, focused on rivers and river woodlands. Craig’s work has been widely published, including in New Writing Scotland and Poetry Scotland, and he is a recipient of a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. In 2025, he published a long poem about the River Tweed, launched at the Borders Book Festival. Drawing on his work and interest in the Tweed, the performance will weave together story and audience participation.

Getting there

Bus routes: Innerleithen is served by the X62 bus route, which runs between Edinburgh, Peebles and Galashiels. The nearest train station is Tweedbank, with connecting bus services to Innerleithen.

Parking: There is a public car park opposite Innerleithen Memorial Hall and limited parking at the hall. There is also free street parking around the hall.

Accessibility information

Disabled access: There are disabled access ramps leading into the building.

Toilets: There are disabled access toilets in the hall.