There is a hint of arrogance in offering a subtropical swimming paradise to a country that is more famous for its constant rain and midges. Still, Center Parcs does a lot of the same things. The company, the kind that has spent thirty years or so turning English woodlands into family vacation spots, is now looking north. It wants to build a £450 million holiday village in the Scottish Borders, close to the small market town of Hawick. The Borders Railway was the last big investment of its kind in the area before this one.
The site is on 400 acres of open grassland owned by the Buccleuch Group. It is east of the A7, between Hawick and Selkirk. The landscape isn’t very interesting right now—it’s mostly rolling fields and a few scattered trees—it’s the kind of quiet countryside that doesn’t make a fuss. Center Parcs wants to build something very different: 700 self-catering lodges, a Sports Plaza, an Aqua Sana Forest Spa, restaurants, shops, two new lochs for water sports, and the company’s famous Subtropical Swimming Paradise, an indoor water park in the shape of a greenhouse with pools, rapids, and what the renderings show will be a lot of tropical plants.
Officials in charge of planning at Scottish Borders Council said that the plans should be approved by the end of 2025. The chief planning officer called the progress “transformational” for the area. People use that word a lot when they say things like this. You should check to see if the word is still true. It looks like the short answer is: most likely yes, at least in terms of money. Center Parcs thinks that the site will create about 1,200 permanent jobs when it opens, plus another 750 to 800 construction jobs during the building phase. That number is more important than it might sound for a region that has had a hard time in the past finding year-round jobs.
That’s what makes this project different from the company’s other growth efforts: Scotland is both geographically and operationally brand new territory. So far, every Center Parcs that has been built in the UK has been built in an existing commercial forest. This place doesn’t have any woods to speak of. The company wants to start from scratch and plant thousands of trees on land that is now grass. Planting trees is what Center Parcs calls it. If it works, the size of it might be the most lasting thing about the project, even more so than the rapids or the spa.
Colin McKinlay, CEO of Center Parcs, has pointed out that many Scottish families already travel south to visit English villages that are already open. They would feel more at home on a site in Scotland. That argument makes sense, but it also brings up a question that the company hasn’t fully answered yet: does Center Parcs’ appeal work in all climates and expectations, or does part of the fun come from being mildly surprised to find warmth somewhere mild? You can understand why the pool is named the Subtropical Swimming Paradise and not just the Swimming Pool.
The project should open sometime in 2029, as long as the planning goes well and the building goes according to plan, which are both strong assumptions. Community consultations are still going on, and so far, most people in the Borders have had positive things to say. Euan Jardine, leader of the Scottish Borders Council, said it was “absolutely phenomenal” for the area. This is about as positive as the council usually gets. It will be years before we know if the final village lives up to all that excitement. At the moment, all that can be seen is a big field, some very good drawings, and a business that is sure the Scottish Borders are ready for something much warmer than its winters.
