Galashiels flats with stunning views open for tenants

Neil Wilson-Prior, director of property assets at Eildon, outside the new flats.

The first tenants moved into the building, which incorporates 34 two-bedroom flats and one one-bedroom flat with disabled access on the ground floor, on Friday, March 4.

The flats offer fantastic views along the Gala Water and over towards the Eildon Hills, with superb large window features to admire them from, and are conveniently located close to the town centre.

It’s been a fair wait for tenants, following delays in the building works due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the building has been completed and the flats are ready to be used.

The view from one of the third-floor flats.

Neil Wilson-Prior, director of property assets at the housing association, said on Friday: “The building is complete and the first tenants are moving in today.

"All the apartments are really quite spacious and if you get the right aspect, the views are really quite something, across the water and looking up to the hills.

"There are no restrictions to the type of tenants moving in here, it’s open to anyone eligible on our lists.

"We’re very proud of this building and it was great to hear the feedback from the tenants today, who say they are rather overwhelmed.

"The specs are really high-end, and a private developer would look at this with some pride.

"Credit goes to our contractor Cruden Builders who tried really hard through Covid to get the building ready for us and for tenants to move in.”

Given the building's closeness to the river, a purpose-built undercroft was designed to accommodate any future flooding issues.

Eildon bought the site back in spring of 2016, but works to the river wall didn’t begin until summer of 2019 and the building itself began in summer 2020.

The total project cost of £6.18m was part funded to the tune of £3,119,810 by the Scottish Government, with Eildon Finance paying £3,063,722.

The site is named after Galashiels-born Dr Scilla Elworthy, a world-renowned award-winning peace activist nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times, who founded the Oxford Research Group, set up to develop effective dialogue between nuclear arms policy makers and their critics, in 1982.