Innerleithen is a civil parish and a small town in the committee area of Tweeddale, in the Scottish Borders. It was formerly in the historic county of Peeblesshire or Tweeddale.EtymologyThe name "Innerleithen" comes from the Scottish Gaelic meaning "confluence of the Leithen", because it is here that the river joins the Tweed. The prefix "Inner-/Inver-" (Inbhir-) is common in many Scottish placenames, such as Inverness. At this confluence, the Tweed flows approximately west-east, and the Leithen flows from the north.LayoutThe layout of the town is dominated by the surrounding hills. To the north the peaked hill of Lee Pen (502m), and its southerly spur Caerlee Hill (258m). To the east the rounded hill of Pirn Craig (363m) - locally known as "Rocky" - and its townward spur of Windy Knowe (155m), also known as "Pirn Hill", and to the south, beyond the Tweed, the extended of ridge of Plora Craig rises sharply from the southerly bank. Thus the town has grown in an inverted 'T' shape north up the valley of the Leithen and east-west along north bank flood plain of the Tweed.HistoryThe area occupied by the town has been inhabited since pre-Roman times. The remains of an Iron-Age hill fort are visible atop Caerlee Hill, in the form of defensive ditchworks. Ditchworks are also visible on the hill of Windy Knowe and, whilst there is some local speculation that these belong to an unusual round Roman hill fort, they are in fact typical of an indigenous Iron Age hill fort. Crop marks from aerial photographs of the 1950s suggest the existence of a semi-permanent Roman marching camp on the flood plain by the river Tweed at Toll Wood (near Traquair) and at nearby Eshiels.