Attraction in Scottish Borders

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.

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.

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.