County Hotel was possibly a rectangular 16th or 17th century stone two storey defensible farmhouse. With an 18th century facade, the present main block of 'The County Inn', is of three storeys, with four bays. At the east end, is a thick walled barrel-vaulted cellar, which was originally the ground floor of a bastle. In 1870, Peebles had six bastle houses still standing and this cellar could be the remains of one of them. The strong walls, with a removable stair up to the living quarters and a ground floor for stores and their livestock, provided a shelter from the cross-border reivers, until help arrived. Nearby is Castle Hill and the Old Burgh Wall, 2 miles south-east is Horsburgh Castle.