Whiteadder Reservoir

Whiteadder Reservoir
Sheep at the reservoir
Location	East Lothian, Scotland
Coordinates	55°51′50″N 2°33′23″W / 55.86389°N 2.55639°W / 55.86389; -2.55639Coordinates: 55°51′50″N 2°33′23″W / 55.86389°N 2.55639°W / 55.86389; -2.55639
Type	reservoir
Basin countries	United Kingdom
Surface area	193 acres (0.78 km2)

Whiteadder Reservoir is a reservoir in East Lothian, Scotland, UK, in the Lammermuir Hills, 11 miles (18 km) north west of Duns in the Scottish Borders, and five miles (8 km) south east of Garvald.

The reservoir was established in the late 1960s. The flooding ceremony was in May 1968. Millknowe Farm and Kingside School were flooded.

Whiteadder reservoir supplies East Lothian and Berwickshire, including Cockenzie Power Station on the northern coast of East Lothian, the Whiteadder Water flows out of the reservoir and the lowest tributary of the River Tweed which it enters at Berwick-on-Tweed.

Although the reservoir and the Outdoor Education Centre are in East Lothian, it has been managed by the Outdoor Education department of Scottish Borders Council for over 20 years. Through a partnership between East Lothian Council, Scottish Borders Council and Borders Sailing Club, funds were obtained for a major refurbishment, and the new Centre was opened in 2005.

Prehistoric settlement in the area is represented by the Friar's Nose, a multivallate promontory fort immediately east of the reservoir. Directly across the Whiteadder valley from the fort, to the north-east of the reservoir, traces of a prehistoric settlement and field system have been recorded.

Penshiel Grange is a ruin located to the southeast of the reservoir. It was a monastic grange attached to Melrose Abbey, and was probably built in the first half of the 15th century, though there is reference to Penshiel in a charter of 1200. Penshiel Grange is protected as a scheduled monument. The main building measures about 82 by 25 feet (25.0 by 7.6 m), and has a wall about 10 feet (3.0 m) high. There are some traces of a tower at the south east corner, and some evidence of a courtyard to the north and south of the ruin, with the wall on the south of the main building now being merely a turf-covered stony bank. There were at least two building to the north, one of which may have been a chapel.