Things to do in Scottish Borders

Barony Castle in the Scottish Borders near Peebles is a historic fortified house of considerable character that combines the architectural traditions of the Scottish tower house with the later development into a more comfortable and extensive country residence. The building has medieval origins and retains elements of its earliest defensive phases, while having been extended and adapted over subsequent centuries in ways that reflect the changing requirements and resources of its occupants. Today it operates as a hotel, bringing its historic fabric back into active use while providing visitors with a base for exploring the rich Border landscape. The Borders landscape around Peebles is one of the most historically layered in Scotland, combining prehistoric hill forts, Roman road alignments, early medieval kingdoms and the long heritage of the Border families whose fortified houses and towers are scattered across the hills and river valleys of the region. Peebles itself is a handsome market town on the River Tweed with a long history as a royal burgh, and the surrounding countryside includes a concentration of historic sites including Neidpath Castle above the Tweed, the ruins of several Border abbeys within comfortable reach and the wide open moorland of the Pentland Hills. The architecture of Barony Castle reflects the characteristically Scottish approach to fortified building, in which the vertical tower form was progressively augmented with additional wings, a baronial roofline of turrets and crowstepped gables and the internal improvements of comfort that became possible as the threat of serious attack receded in the later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This pattern of evolution from defensive tower to comfortable country house is found across dozens of Scottish Border properties and gives the region's domestic architecture a distinctly stratified character. For visitors staying at the castle as a hotel, the experience combines the atmospheric qualities of a genuinely old Scottish baronial building with access to some of the finest walking, cycling and fishing country in the Borders. The River Tweed, famous for its salmon and sea trout, is a short distance away, and the surrounding moorland provides walking of considerable quality.

Cessford Castle was built around 1450 for Andrew Ker. During the 16th century the Border area was the scene of continuing warfare between the Scots and the English and in times of cross-border peace, between the various families along the border. Cessford Castle is still in the ownership of the Ker family with the Duke of Roxburgh, who lives at Floors Castle, Kelso the present owner. Originally it had 14 feet thick walls and was surrounded by a strong outer curtain wall and a moat. It was over-run by the English during the 1560s and abandoned not long after.

Dryburgh Abbey in the Scottish Borders near Melrose is the most completely preserved and most romantically beautiful of the four great Border abbeys, a Premonstratensian monastery of the twelfth century whose substantial ruins stand in a wooded loop of the River Tweed in a setting of exceptional natural beauty. The abbey is the burial place of Sir Walter Scott, whose grave in the north transept has made it one of the most visited pilgrimage sites of Scottish literary heritage, and of Earl Haig, the First World War British commander whose grave is also in the abbey ruins. The setting of Dryburgh is the finest of the four Border abbeys, the wooded loop of the Tweed enclosing the monastery ruins in a natural amphitheatre of trees and river that creates an atmosphere of profound peace and considerable natural beauty. The combination of the ruined but substantial Romanesque and Gothic architecture of the abbey buildings, the mature trees of cedar, beech and lime that grow among the ruins and the sound of the Tweed in the background creates a landscape of deep romantic quality that drew Scott and subsequently drew the tourists who wished to share the emotional experience he had described. The abbey church, though ruinless, retains substantial elements of its twelfth and thirteenth-century construction, and the cloister buildings are among the most complete of any Scottish Border abbey. Historic Environment Scotland manages the site and the combination of the architecture, the setting and the Scott association makes Dryburgh one of the most rewarding heritage destinations in the Borders.

Duns Castlein Berwickshire is a historic house in Scotland. The the oldest part is a Norman Keep dating from 1320. The castle is available for weddings and other functions. The main Castle sleeps up to 23 with sleeping for a further 25 in ancillary buildings. Groups of up to 60 may be seated to dine in the great hall. The castle, which was built around a 14th century tower given by King Robert the Bruce to the Earl of Moray. The Scottish Covenanters rising against King Charles 1 in 1639 took place at Duns law on the estate, under General Leslie, who was quartered in the Castle. The Hay family have owned the Castle since 1696. It was transformed into a Gothic castle between 1818 and 1822 by architect James Gillespie Graham. It is owned by the current Laird, Alexander Hay of Duns and Drumelzier.

The Eildon Hills above Melrose in the Scottish Borders are three volcanic hills rising from the surrounding farmland of the Tweed Valley in a distinctive triple profile visible from a wide area of the Borders, providing one of the finest views of any accessible summit in the region and combining a rich geological heritage with a density of archaeological sites that makes them one of the most historically significant hill groups in Scotland. The summit of Eildon Hill North was occupied by a massive Iron Age hill fort, one of the largest in Scotland. The Iron Age settlement on Eildon Hill North enclosed within its massive ramparts an area of approximately 16 hectares and contained several hundred house platforms, suggesting a population of considerable size in a fortified township that may have been the principal settlement of the Selgovae tribe whose territory covered much of the central Borders. The Roman fort of Trimontium was established at the foot of the hills near present-day Newstead in the first century AD, the Romans recognising the strategic importance of the hills that had already defined this section of the Tweed Valley as a place of authority and power. The hills are also the setting for the legend of Thomas the Rhymer, the thirteenth-century prophetic poet Thomas of Erceldoune who was said to have been taken to Elfland through a door in the Eildon Hills and to have returned with the gift of prophecy. The combination of the archaeology, the legend and the outstanding views from the summit make the Eildon Hills one of the most rewarding walks in the Borders.

Floors Castle in Kelso, Scotland is the seat of the Duke of Roxburghe. It is a country house, rather than a fortress. It has a main block and two symmetrical service wings. The design incorporated an earlier tower house. The castle is now open to the public. Floors Castle hosts a number of events throughout the year including massed pipe band days and Highland games. Disabled visitors are made more than welcome here at Floors Castle. They offer a guide to meet and assist; a lift to assist entry to the Castle; disabled toilets; Disabled parking; Ramps to assist entry into the Restaurant; and Gift Shop at ground level. Floors Castle was originally built by William Adam for the 1st Duke of Roxburghe, in 1721. In the 19th century the castle was embellished with turrets and battlements. The Arts Floors Castle featured in the 1984 movie Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. The castle's reputation as a haunted house was the inspiration for M. R. James 1904 Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. Legends The most well known Floors Castle ghost story is the sighting supposedly made by the 4th Duke of Roxburghe as a boy in 1740. This ghost is believed to be of his grandmother Margaret Hay, the 1st Duchess, who disappeared in mysterious circumstances. Her ghost can be heard sobbing in the Long Gallery.

Fulton Tower is a ruined tower house near Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders, in the rolling agricultural landscape of Teviotdale that formed the medieval march between Scotland and England. The Border tower house tradition was particularly important in this region where persistent raiding made defensive domestic buildings a practical necessity for families on both sides of the border. The Jedburgh area is exceptionally rich in medieval heritage, with the magnificent twelfth-century Augustinian Abbey of Jedburgh providing the most celebrated monument of the district. The surrounding countryside of Teviotdale and Redesdale contains numerous earthwork border fortifications, peel towers and earthworks of Roman-period and earlier settlement.

Hermitage Castle is now a ruined structure, situated in southern Roxburghshire, near Hermitage Water. The castle has a formidable appearance. The unusual architecture was designed to allow wooden fighting platforms to run the length of the tops of the walls. The castle is near the border with England was fought over many times. It is under the care of Historic Scotland and is open to the public in summer. The site is not easily accessible to visitors using wheelchairs or with limited mobility. It has an uneven grass surface which can get boggy and the castle has many interior steps. The present castle was begun by an English lord, Sir Hugh de Dacre, around 1360. It was transformed by his successor, William, 1st Earl of Douglas, into the formidable stronghold we see today. The castle was designed as a defensive fortress. In 1492, King James IV ordered Archibald Douglas to resign Hermitage Castle to the Crown, because he was dealing with Henry VII of England. The castle was then given to the Hepburns of Bothwell. In the 16th century gunholes were punched through the thick walls, and a gun defence built outside, to protect the western approach. After the union of the crowns in 1603 when James VI of Scotland, became James I of England also, Hermitage Castle lost its strategic importance. It was abandoned and fell into disrepair, and by the turn of the eighteenth century it was a ruin. During the 19th century the ruin was preserved by its owners, the Scotts of Buccleuch. The Castle stayed with the Scotts until 1930, when it was handed over to the state.

Holy Island, or Lindisfarne, lies off the Northumberland coast connected to the mainland by a tidal causeway that is covered by the sea twice daily, its isolation defining both the practical experience of visiting and the spiritual character that has made it one of the most significant sacred sites in the whole of Britain. The island was the cradle of Celtic Christianity in England, the home of St Cuthbert and the place where the Lindisfarne Gospels were created in the late seventh century, and the combination of the priory ruins, the castle, the wildlife and the tidal causeway gives it a quality of concentrated significance rare even among the great heritage destinations of Northumbria. The monastery on Lindisfarne was founded by St Aidan from Iona in 635 at the invitation of the Northumbrian king Oswald, establishing it as the primary mission station from which Christianity spread across the north and east of England. The island became a centre of learning, manuscript production and religious life of international importance, and it was here that the Lindisfarne Gospels were produced around 715, an illuminated manuscript of supreme quality and beauty that is now in the British Library and is considered one of the greatest works of art of the early medieval period. The ruins of the Benedictine priory, built in the twelfth century on the site of the earlier monastery that had been destroyed in Viking raids, are among the most evocative in Northumberland, their red sandstone arches and walls standing against the wide Northumberland sky in a setting that preserves the island's quality of separation from the mainland. Lindisfarne Castle, perched on a rocky outcrop above the harbour and converted by Edwin Lutyens in the early twentieth century from a Tudor fort into a small country house, provides an architectural counterpoint to the priory ruins.

Hume Castle is the heavily modified remnants of a late 12th or early 13th century "Castle of enceinte". Located between Greenlaw and Kelso, two miles north of the village of Stichill, in Berwickshire, Scotland. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, recorded as such by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS).

Hutton Castle near Chirnside in Berwickshire, Scottish Borders, incorporates medieval fabric within a building substantially rebuilt in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by William Burrell, the Glasgow shipping magnate who assembled one of the world's most remarkable private art collections. Burrell purchased Hutton Castle in 1916 and used it as both residence and repository for his extraordinary collections of medieval art, tapestries, stained glass, paintings and decorative objects, many now housed in the Burrell Collection museum in Glasgow. Sir Robert Lorimer's sympathetic remodelling created a building of considerable historical atmosphere appropriate for Burrell's medieval and Renaissance objects. The surrounding landscape of Berwickshire, with the great Border abbeys at Melrose, Jedburgh, Kelso and Dryburgh nearby, is one of the most scenically and historically rewarding parts of southern Scotland.

Jedburgh Abbey is one of the great Border abbeys of Scotland, a magnificent ruin set within the pleasant market town of Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders. Founded in 1138 by King David I of Scotland as an Augustinian priory and later raised to the status of an abbey, it grew to become one of the most important religious establishments in Scotland before centuries of conflict with England reduced it to the atmospheric ruin that visitors explore today. The architecture of Jedburgh Abbey is exceptional. The church is built in the Romanesque and early Gothic styles that were at the cutting edge of ecclesiastical architecture during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and despite the damage inflicted by repeated English raids, the surviving fabric of the building is remarkably complete. The nave arcades, with their decorative Romanesque carving and the transition to pointed Gothic arches in the upper storeys, illustrate the evolution of medieval architectural style with extraordinary clarity. The west front, with its elaborate carved doorway, retains some of the finest Romanesque carving in Scotland. The location of Jedburgh on the main route between England and Scotland placed the abbey directly in the path of almost every major military conflict between the two kingdoms. English forces raided and damaged the abbey in 1297, 1305 and repeatedly during the Wars of the Roses, and further destruction came during the Reformation in 1560 when the Catholic religious community was dissolved. Despite this, the abbey remained in partial use as a parish church until 1875, and the relative continuity of occupation explains why so much fabric survives. The abbey's visitor centre contains the Pictish Jedburgh Comb and other significant archaeological finds from the site, along with displays explaining the history of the building and the Augustinian monastic community that once inhabited it. The formal garden laid out around the ruins provides a pleasant setting for exploring the surviving walls, columns and arched windows, and a heritage trail connects the abbey with other historic sites in the town including Mary Queen of Scots' House, where the Scottish queen stayed during her famous progress through the Borders in 1566. The town of Jedburgh itself is an attractive and historically rich stopping point on any tour of the Scottish Borders, with a medieval town centre, good independent shops and close proximity to several other historic sites including Dryburgh Abbey, Melrose Abbey and Floors Castle.

Melrose Abbey in the Scottish Borders is the finest Gothic ruin in Scotland, a Cistercian monastery of the twelfth century rebuilt in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries after successive English attacks whose surviving carved stonework — including the famous figure of a pig playing the bagpipes on the roofline — is among the most elaborate and most charming of any British medieval ecclesiastical building. The abbey contains the heart of Robert the Bruce, interred beneath the high altar following his death in 1329. The surviving nave arcade and south transept provide the finest Gothic architectural experience available in any Scottish Border site, the quality of the carved decoration reflecting the ambition and resources of the community that rebuilt the abbey after its destruction by Richard II in 1385. The variety and humour of the carved figures reflect the exuberance and individual creativity of the medieval stone carvers working here. The Heart of Bruce enclosure in the church floor marks the burial of the heart brought back from Spain where it was being carried to the Holy Land in fulfilment of Bruce's deathbed request. The combination of the architecture, the sculpture and this remarkable historical association makes Melrose one of the essential heritage destinations in the Borders.

Neidpath Castle is situated on the river Tweed about 1 mile west of Peebles in the Borders of Scotland. It is an L-Shaped tower with rounded corners. The basement and the hall are vaulted. Neidpath features roofed battlements, a pit dungeon, a parapet walk, and an exhibition of artifacts. A pleasant way to access the castle is from Haylodge Park and follow the path along the Tweed. The castle is open to the public. An earlier castle on the site belonged to Sir Simon Fraser. The castle now standing was built by the Hays of Yester around 1370. Neidpath was known as Jedderfield Castle until the 16th century. The castle was visited by Mary, Queen of Scots in 1563, and by her son James VI in 1587. The castle was bought by William Douglas, 1st Duke of Queensberry in 1686. The castle was attacked by Oliver Cromwell and damaged by cannon fire before the occupants surrendered. Following the death of the fourth Duke of Queensberry the castle was inherited by the Earl of Wemyss and March. The tower main block and south range are still roofed, but the remainder is ruined. Neidpath still belongs to the Wemyss family. The Arts Sir Walter Scott and William Wordsworth visited the castle in 1803. Neidpath Castle was used as a location for Merlin: The Quest Begins starring Jason Connery. It was also used in the filming of The Bruce, and Joan of Arc. Legends The castle is said to be haunted by the ghost of Jean Douglas, referred to by Sir Walter Scott as ' the Maid of Neidpath', the youngest daughter of the Earl of March, William Douglas. Forbidden to marry her true love, she died of a broken heart. She is said to appear in a brown dress with a white collar.

Newark Castle near Broadmeadows in Selkirkshire, Scottish Borders, is a ruined fifteenth-century royal castle on the banks of the Yarrow Water, associated with the Douglas family and notable as the site of the execution of several hundred prisoners following the Battle of Philiphaugh in 1645. The battle, in which Covenanting forces commanded by David Leslie defeated the Royalist army of the Marquess of Montrose, ended the brilliant Royalist campaign of 1644-45 and the subsequent massacre of prisoners and camp followers at Newark was one of the more brutal episodes of the Scottish Civil War. The castle ruins in their woodland setting beside the Yarrow are a picturesque but historically sobering reminder of the violence of seventeenth-century Scottish politics. The Yarrow valley is one of the most beautiful river valleys in the Scottish Borders, associated with Scott, Hogg and the Border ballad tradition.