Scottish Borders

Most towns and points of interest are along one of the main roads between England and Edinburgh.

A1 is the usual approach.

• 🌍 Berwick-upon-Tweed is in England, but gives its name to Berwickshire and is the hub for nearby villages.
• 🌍 Eyemouth, Burnmouth and St Abbs are small fishing villages along the rugged coast.

A697 runs inland via Morpeth and Wooler to enter Scotland by the bridge over the River Tweed.

• 🌍 Coldstream is the small town just over that bridge.
• 🌍 Kelso at the confluence of the Tweed and the Teviot has an abbey and Floors Castle.
• 🌍 Kirk Yetholm is the northern end of the Pennine Way, descending the louring Cheviot on the last stage of its 267 miles from Edale in Derbyshire.

A68 follows a rollercoaster route across Northumberland and crests the Cheviots into Scotland at Carter Bar.

• 🌍 Jedburgh has a fine ruined abbey and one of the many residences of Mary Queen of Scots.
• 🌍 St Boswells is the turn-off for Dryburgh Abbey, burial place of Sir Walter Scott.
• 🌍 Melrose three miles west also has a ruined abbey.

A7 is the old Carlisle-Edinburgh road.

• 🌍 Hawick is a former textile town in the Teviot valley.
• 🌍 Selkirk is where Sir Walter Scott dispensed justice between writing novels.
• 🌍 Galashiels has the Great Tapestry of Scotland and is near Abbotsford, Scott's mansion.

A72 runs east-west along the Tweed valley, eventually to Lanarkshire and the Clyde.

• 🌍 Peebles is a pleasant market town; near Innerleithen is Traquair House.

The border region was often the scene of battles between England and Scotland, but 1513 marked the beginning of the end. At Flodden Field in Northumberland the Scots suffered a calamitous defeat, and King James IV was killed - the last British monarch to die in battle. In later years they regrouped and came again, but fell to another crushing defeat at Solway Moss in 1542. Scotland could never again pose a serious military threat to England: the Borders still saw banditry and skirmishes, but were no longer the cockpit of war. A quirk of ancestry brought the Scots King James VI to the throne of England, which he much preferred to his cold northern realm, and power, influence and wealth all drained away to the south. And in so far as Scotland has been defined as much by its legends and stories as its terrain, that too drained away. Look to the Greek and Roman classics for your heroes, and forget our own brutish Dark Ages.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), a lawyer living and working in Edinburgh and Selkirk, led the revival of Scottish lore. He took a great interest in the folk tales of the Borders, began writing them down, and writing his own works. His breakthrough was the 1805 epic poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel. He went on to write The Lady of the Lake, Waverley, Old Mortality, Ivanhoe which relaunched the legend of Robin Hood, and many more. In 1812 he bought a farm cottage near Melrose which he named "Abbotsford" — and it grew, and grew and grew, into an ornate Baronial mansion. In 1822 he scored a PR triumph in stage-managing the visit of King George IV to Scotland, having monarch and bowing subjects all dressed in tartan kilts — "clan tartans" which he'd just invented, but that would adorn Scottish regalia, wedding suits and biscuit tins for ever after.

He earned a real fortune but spent an even bigger one, running up great debts over Abbotsford — the financial crash of 1825 bankrupted his publisher and almost himself. He resolved to write his way out of trouble, and continued to publish prolifically. His health was failing by the 1830s, yet he embarked on a grand celebrity tour of Europe. He died at Abbotsford in September 1832 and was buried at Dryburgh Abbey.

You'll do best by car. A bike is great in summer, as the hills between the Cheviots south and the Lammermuirs north aren't too severe.

You can just about get around by bus along radial routes from Edinburgh, Melrose/Galashiels and Berwick-upon-Tweed. As well as those listed in "Get in", you might use:

Bus 20 Hawick - Jedburgh - Kelso

Bus 396 Hawick - Selkirk - Galashiels - Melrose

Bus 81 Kelso - Kirk Yetholm

Bus 68 Jedburgh - St Boswells - Melrose - Galashiels

Bus 235 Berwick-upon-Tweed - Eyemouth - St Abbs

Bus 60 Berwick-upon-Tweed - Chirnside - Duns - Gordon - Earlston - Melrose - Galashiels

• Abbeys: these sprang up in Norman times and flourished in the Middle Ages, but were left to ruin after the Reformation - the 16th-century break with Roman Catholicism. Find them at Jedburgh, Melrose, Kelso and Dryburgh near St Boswells.
• Stately Homes: built for lordly living, not for defence. Those which can be visited include Floors in Kelso, Mellerstain and Thirlestane near Melrose, and Paxton near Berwick.
• Castles in the Borders are mostly Peel Towers and turrets. They were residences and farms fortified against bandits, rather than military garrisons. Most are scrappy ruins, some have been incorporated into later buildings. One you can visit is Smailholm Tower between Kelso and Melrose.
• St Abb's Head is the most scenic section of the Berwickshire cliffs, with sea birds whirling over a tumult of waters. Take the minor road east from Coldingham, park at the head of St Abb's village (don't take a car down the steep narrow lane to the harbour) and walk across the fields to the Head.
• See Berwick-upon-Tweed for places right on the border: Norham Castle just south of it in Northumberland, and Paxton House just west in Berwickshire.
• Scotland's Gardens opens up private gardens once a year in summer, with all proceeds going to charity. There are about 25 participating gardens in this region, dates staggered so there's one open most weekends.

• Several long-distance hiking trails cross the area.

The Pennine Way is a 268-mile trail from Edale in Derbyshire to Kirk Yetholm. Its northernmost stage, from Byrness, is 27 miles along the ridge of the Cheviots, with no habitation or road access along the way. It can be done in one long day, or you can bivvy at the two refuge huts (bothies) along the way, or you can break it into three there-and-back walks from the valleys. The path climbs steeply from Byrness then heads north to enter Scotland near Ogre Hill. It now follows the border fence, switching between England and Scotland, past the Roman fort at Chew Green and Roman "Dere Street". It comes onto the exposed ridge climbing to the well-named Windy Gyle and Cairn Hill (743 m, 2438 ft). Here there is a side path to the summit of The Cheviot (815 m, 2674 ft). The main path turns sharply northwest, following the border fence down past a refuge hut, climbing The Schil (601 m, 1972 ft) then descending into gentler countryside, to end at the Border Hotel in Kirk Yetholm.

The Southern Upland Way is a 210-mile trail from Portpatrick on the Rhins of Galloway (looking across at Northern Ireland) to Cockburnspath on the Berwickshire coast. In this region, coming from the west it passes St Mary's Loch, Traquair, Galashiels, Lauder, Abbey St Bathans, and Longformacus before reaching the coast. It crosses the hills but reaches no great altitude and most sections are short enough for a there-and-back Sunday stroll. Much of its eastern route is shared with the Sir Walter Scott Way.

The Borders Abbeys Way is a circular 68-mile trail. It's usually done in five stages, in no preferred direction or order: Kelso-Jedburgh-Hawick-Selkirk-Melrose-Kelso. It's mostly lowland and easy going, with the highest point at 339 m (1113 ft).

The Berwickshire Coastal Path is a 30-mile trail from Berwick-upon-Tweed along the cliff tops via Eyemouth, St Abbs and Cove to Cockburnspath. Here it meets the Southern Upland Way from the west, and the John Muir Way north via Dunbar and North Berwick to Edinburgh.

St Cuthbert's Way is a 62-mile trail from Melrose Abbey, where the saint spent much of his life, east via St Boswells and Maxton to Kirk Yetholm, meeting the Pennine Way. Continuing east it crosses into Northumberland in England and runs down to the coast and by tidal footpath to Lindisfarne. It's all lowland in nature.

• Boat trips from Eyemouth and St Abbs explore the rugged coastline.
• Watch Rugby Union, or play if you're tough enough. Notable local rugby clubs are Hawick, Melrose and Jed-Forest (Jedburgh). You may well see international players turning out in local club fixtures. The Borders only plays soccer at junior / amateur level.
• St Cuthbert's Way Ultra Marathon is over two distances from Melrose into Northumberland: a 45 mile race to Wooler, and a 100 km race to Lindisfarne. The next is on 9 July 2022.

• Two Jedburgh restaurants earn rave reviews: Capon Tree in town and Caddy Mann at Mounthooley.
• Elsewhere, the hotel restaurants usually have the best dining; otherwise it's pub grub.

The larger towns have pubs, but the hotel bars may be more comfortable.

The crime rate is very low in the Borders and the chances of you encountering a crime during the daytime are next to none. Of course this does not mean there is no crime. It is advisable to be sensible when out at night: avoid large groups of youngsters hanging about street corners; they are very unlikely to approach you or communicate, but it is best to be safe by walking on the other side of the road.

As with much of Scotland, some roads may be rather narrow, twisty and unpredictable. Take this into consideration while driving.

• West head through Moffat and Dumfries or down the Clyde valley from Biggar to New Lanark and Glasgow.
• North is the attractive East Lothian coast and unmissable Edinburgh.
• South is Northumberland, with Lindisfarne island, teetering castles and the best sections of Hadrian's Wall.