Historic Places 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Roxburgh Castle stands on a narrow promontory between the rivers Teviot and Tweed near Kelso in the Scottish Borders, a site of dramatic natural defensibility that was one of the most important royal fortresses in medieval Scotland and the focus of repeated conflict between Scotland and England across three centuries of border warfare. The castle was one of Scotland's four great royal burghs in the medieval period alongside Edinburgh, Stirling and Berwick, a status that reflects its significance as a centre of royal administration and commerce in the heart of the Borders. The castle's history is inseparable from the long struggle over control of the Anglo-Scottish border. It changed hands repeatedly between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, with the English holding it for extended periods and the Scots repeatedly besieging and recovering it. The final and most significant siege of Roxburgh came in 1460 when James II of Scotland was killed by the explosion of one of his own siege cannon while watching the bombardment of the castle walls. The castle was subsequently demolished by the Scots to prevent it falling back into English hands, ending its long history as one of the most contested military sites in Britain. The destruction of Roxburgh Castle in 1460 means that virtually nothing survives above ground today beyond earthworks, the outline of the promontory and a few fragments of masonry. The site is now a scheduled monument managed as an open landscape, and the drama of the location above the river confluence is the principal reward for the visit. The meeting of the Teviot and Tweed below the promontory is one of the most beautiful river landscapes in the Borders, and Kelso Abbey, one of the finest Border abbey ruins, is a short walk away. The invisibility of Roxburgh Castle above ground makes it an unusual heritage site, but the combination of its extraordinary historical significance, the evocative landscape setting and the nearby concentration of Border heritage at Kelso make it a rewarding destination for those with an interest in medieval Scottish history.

Smailholm Tower stands on a rocky outcrop in the farmland of the Scottish Borders near Kelso, a perfectly preserved sixteenth-century peel tower that rises stark and solitary against the wide Border sky with a clarity of form that has made it one of the most recognisable and most painted buildings in the region. The tower is maintained by Historic Environment Scotland and contains a small exhibition of figures and tapestries relating to the Border ballads and the literary associations that have made Smailholm one of the most celebrated minor historic buildings in Scotland. The literary connections are considerable. Sir Walter Scott spent holidays as a child at nearby Sandyknowe Farm and developed his lifelong fascination with Border history, legend and landscape in sight of Smailholm Tower. The tower appears in his poetry, including Marmion, and the romantic attachment Scott formed to Border balladry and the fortified architecture of the region in large part originated in his early experiences at Sandyknowe. That connection with one of the most influential writers of the nineteenth century has given Smailholm a cultural significance well beyond its modest scale. The tower itself is a good example of the peel tower form developed across the Border counties in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as a response to the chronic raiding and small-scale violence that characterised life in this politically unstable zone between England and Scotland. Peel towers were not major fortifications but rather secure refuges: strong enough to resist a raiding party, tall enough to provide warning of approaching horsemen and substantial enough to protect household valuables and cattle during the brief but intense episodes of violent theft known as reiving. The Borders landscape is dotted with such towers, but Smailholm's isolation and preservation make it the most atmospheric of them all. The views from the tower top across the rolling farmland and distant hills of the Borders are exceptional, with Kelso, the Eildon Hills and the distant Cheviots all visible on a clear day.

Thirlestane Castle at Lauder in Berwickshire, Scottish Borders, is one of Scotland's oldest and most magnificent inhabited castles, a seventeenth-century mansion incorporating a medieval tower that has been the seat of the Maitland family, Earls of Lauderdale, for centuries. The castle was substantially rebuilt in the 1670s for the Duke of Lauderdale, Charles II's Secretary of State for Scotland and one of the most powerful figures in Restoration Scotland, creating an interior of exceptional opulence including the most elaborate Restoration plasterwork ceilings in Scotland. The castle remains in the ownership of the Maitland family and is open to visitors with guided tours of the state rooms and an exhibition of toys and games in the basement. The surrounding Lauder landscape in the Gala Water valley provides an attractive setting for one of the finest and most historically significant inhabited castles in Scotland.

Traquair House in the Scottish Borders near Innerleithen is the oldest continuously inhabited house in Scotland, a distinction it has held since at least the twelfth century and arguably longer. The house has associations with almost every significant figure in Scottish history over a period spanning nearly a millennium: it was a royal hunting lodge for the kings of Scotland, it harboured Mary Queen of Scots and the infant James VI, it sheltered Bonnie Prince Charlie during the 1745 Jacobite Rising, and it was the seat of the Maxwell Stuart family for 500 years and counting. The building presents a long, whitewashed south front to the visitor that combines elements from several centuries of construction into a whole that feels organically unified rather than architecturally contrived. The oldest surviving fabric dates from the sixteenth century, though the house incorporates structures from earlier periods, and the various extensions and modifications made over the centuries have accumulated in the way of a genuinely lived-in house rather than a formally planned architectural composition. The famous Bear Gates at the end of the avenue approaching the house were locked by the fifth Earl of Traquair in 1745 after the departure of Bonnie Prince Charlie, with a vow that they would remain closed until a Stuart king sat on the British throne once more. The gates remain closed to this day, and the avenue leading to them is now unused, the house approached from a different direction. This romantic gesture and its long-maintained legacy give Traquair a particular atmosphere of Jacobite melancholy that is entirely appropriate to its history. The house contains a remarkable collection of historic artefacts including a crucifix and rosary that belonged to Mary Queen of Scots, Jacobite memorabilia and a library of considerable age. The brew house in the grounds, in continuous operation since at least the 1500s and producing traditional ales that are sold on site and nationally, provides a genuinely historic artisan experience alongside the house tour. The walled garden, maze and woodland walks make Traquair a rewarding destination for a full day's visit.

Venlaw Castle stands above the town of Peebles in the Scottish Borders, a Victorian Gothic castellated mansion built in the nineteenth century on a hillside position that commands views across the Tweed valley and the surrounding Border hills. The building operates today as a hotel, making it one of the many Victorian baronial castles in Scotland that have found a successful second life in hospitality while preserving their atmospheric historic fabric intact. The combination of the building's architectural character, its elevated setting and the surrounding landscape of the Borders makes it a distinctive base for exploring this richly historic region. Peebles is one of the most attractive towns in the Scottish Borders, a market town on the River Tweed with a long history as a royal burgh and a relaxed, prosperous character that reflects its position at the heart of good agricultural and sporting country. The town has a good range of independent shops, restaurants and facilities and acts as a natural centre for exploring the wider Borders landscape including the Tweed valley, the Pentland Hills to the north and the open moorland country to the south toward the English border. Victorian Gothic castellated architecture of the Venlaw type represents a deliberate attempt to associate new wealth with the romantic traditions of Scottish Border history. The turrets, crowstepped gables and battlements of buildings like Venlaw were architectural quotations from the genuine medieval tower houses of the region, filtered through the sensibility of nineteenth-century romanticism as expressed by Walter Scott and his many imitators. That tradition gave the Victorian Borders a distinctive architectural character that sits surprisingly comfortably alongside the genuine medieval and early modern buildings it was designed to evoke. The grounds of Venlaw Castle include woodland and garden areas on the hillside, and the walking available directly from the property into the surrounding hill country adds a practical outdoor dimension to the atmospheric architectural setting. The Tweed valley cycling routes and the fishing on the river below the town are among the other recreational draws of the area.