The Lure of The Borders: A Weekend on the River Tweed
What makes The Borders so magical, so romantic and captivating? Is it the history of bloody conflict between England and Scotland, the ruined Abbeys and heroic battlements? Is it Sir Walter Scott, Scotland’s greatest novelist, who was inspired to write here?
Or is it the cycle routes and picnic spots?
OK. WE’RE HERE.
The Borders have always been a place apart; it’s tidy, genteel towns produce some of the toughest rugby players in the world; its river spawns the mightiest salmon; its history is one long bloody territorial battle. Berwick upon Tweed has been in England for more than 500 years, but before that it crossed the border 13 times. The Romans even built a wall along it.
The gentle rolling landscapes here have always been easy to get to, so the better known towns like Hawick, Jedburgh, Galashiels, Kelso and Peebles can still be overrun, but by coaches delivering summer tourists to the woollen mills and monuments rather than battling armies. So be careful. You don’t want run over by a heritage trail minibus where soldiers once proudly fell in battle. That would be just plain embarrassing.
Sir Walter Scott lived and died here, his life woven into the fabric of the Borders as if by local loom. Before going on to write Ivanhoe, Rob Roy and further classics of the 19th century, he compiled local ballads into The Minstrelsy of The Scottish Borders works that still permeate not only history here, but geography too. There’s a lot that hasn’t changed in 200 years.
And it’s that timelessness of Border country that’s the appeal, the lure of hills and valleys, the more quiet byways. The whole region is crisscrossed with routes for walking and biking, both on and off road.
How to get here?
Drive or train to Berwick-upon-Tweed is the simplest, and then head inwards. There are no trains, and bus connections vary. The distance from Berwick to Kelso is about 25 miles.
STAY WHERE?
At the very heart of the Borders is the little town of St Boswells and at its edge, perched on the banks of the mighty River Tweed is the Dryburgh Abbey Hotel, a baronial country house set in ten acres of private grounds. It’s adjacent to the magnificent ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, they’re separated by a wall, and so in terms of tranquil, rural retreats, it’s pretty unbeatable.
The area is dominated by sport, from nearby Kelso Races and shooting parties leaving at dawn to fishermen on the banks just yards away. The bedrooms are even named after salmon flies: Arndilly Fancy, Ally’s Shrimp, Beauly Snowfly, Akroyd and Comet, each one beautifully set under glass on every door.
The rooms benefit greatly from the setting, looking out over the Abbey, the Tweed, and the hills. They’re traditional, clean and comfortable and the new management have been renovating the property recently, redecorating and upgrading throughout.
Two conflicting bonuses – a large indoor heated swimming pool with sauna for private guest use, and a computer to keep up with email – which will it be?
The owners have also instigated a green policy to make the entire enterprise more energy efficient. They started by changing every light on the premises to low energy bulbs, and estimate a massive saving on that alone.
The hotel is everything you’d like The Borders to be. Secluded and private, big, friendly and comfortable, without sacrificing any of the traditions. Their website constantly offers changing weekend deals, such as £83 per person per night including dinner and breakfast.
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL, 1,2,3…
(1) Dryburgh Abbey
Ruins next door to a hotel don’t normally appeal, but Dryburgh Abbey’s graceful remains are something special. It’s where Sir Walter Scott is buried, for a start, alongside Field Marshal Earl Haig, Britain’s Senior Commander throughout World War One.
Of all the ruined abbeys in the Borders, this one is the best preserved. It’s open all year round and a meander through the grounds will illustrate perfectly the bloody nature of the conflicts that raged here for years: destroyed by fire three times and ravaged by war four, it’s a wonder there’s anything left standing at all. Architectural historians love the place – its transepts, cloister and chapter house especially – but it’s the atmosphere of peace and tranquillity that enthrals. This was a monastery, a refuge for contemplation and study by an order of 12th Century monks established originally in France who were brutally assaulted time and again until they were driven out. In the 18th century, the ruins were bought and landscaped to preserve their glory forever, and that’s what we see today.
(2) Fishing on the Tweed
No river in Scotland excites fishermen more than the Tweed. It produces bigger salmon, in greater numbers, than just about anywhere else. It’s where legends and fishermen’s tales remain inseparable. Autumn is the peak season where the “beats” are rented out for a small daily fortune, but the salmon season runs from February 1st through to the end of November.
An indication of prices can be found here. The hotel can arrange salmon fishing but also has rights for trout fishing on its own banks for the season March to September. A sample of other all-inclusive packages can be found here.
(3) The Border Towns
Peebles, Jedburgh, Melrose, Selkirk, and Kelso are all worth exploring. Kelso is the nearest, where you’ll find Floors Castle, the most enormous stately home (still inhabited by the 10th Duke of Roxburghe and his family) worth a trip itself. A small part of this gigantic pile is open for public view. £7 will get you around the grounds and inside to see about 11 rooms, quite the most bizarre of which is The Bird Room, where more than three hundred and fifty stuffed birds stare out at you from glass cabinets. The catching and stuffing was ordered by the 6th Duke for scientific study and includes a Golden Eagle, an Osprey, and a Great Bustard.
LET’S DO LUNCH
Close
Apart from St Boswells’ four shops (wine from the garage), retail outlets are thin on the ground, so the Dryburgh Abbey Hotel prepare packed lunches for lingering country picnics as well as sporting breaks on the riverbank or hillside. On the premises, standard bar lunches – sandwiches, soups and salads – can be taken inside or in the garden overlooking the Tweed.
Not so close
Kelso is well supplied with mid range restaurants given its popularity for the races and tourism, but slightly more in keeping with the country flavour of this guide, smart bar lunches can be had at the Ednam House Hotel in Bridge Street. Rustic décor is matched by traditional quality fare.
Not close at all
In Melrose, Marmion’s Brasserie has been dominating culinary matters for many years. Taken over by a new couple in 2007 it’s maintaining high standards and popularity locally. Good lunches, great dinners.
WHAT’S YOURS?
The most pleasant beer to be had in the Borders is from Traquair House on the road to Peebles at Innerleithen. Its lineage stretches back to the 18th century, but recent production restarted in 1965.
Traquair House itself dates from 1107 – it was originally a hunting lodge and claims to be Scotland’s oldest continuously inhabited dwelling. As well as finding them in pubs throughout the region, the beers can be sampled here for free before purchase during a visit round the premises. Mostly available in bottle, ‘Bear Ale’ can also be found on tap.
DINNER IS SERVED
The dining room at the Dryburgh Abbey Hotel, overlooking the Tweed, is suitably spacious and imposing. One wouldn’t look out of place here in full Highland Dress – kilts, brogues the lot. I’m sure that happens, but the night I was there everyone appeared a little more casual.
When the food arrives, it’s clear there’s something other than formality going on, Scotland’s traditional foodstuffs are being modernized.
The amuse bouche is a little joke – a deep fried haggis ball, paired with an equally petite smoked salmon pastry; an ultra light fishy mousse – almost a foam – is served with a spicy wee deep fried samosa. Someone in here’s got a sense of humour, there’s wit on the plate as well as tasty food.
A first course of fresh tasting scallops – griddled until just translucent - is delicious and served on a square plate where vivid green sauce has been flecked a la Jackson Pollok. Prawn Cocktail is put through a time machine; large, juicy tiger prawns at one end of a rectangular plate, at the other a tomato sorbet spiked with what can only be described as whooshter sauce. Voila! A frozen Bloody Mary. Taking centre stage, a circular tower of piquant guacamole. Funny, witty, delicious, finished with modish slicks of palest pink Marie Rose sauce.
After a small sorbet, ballotine of partridge was moist and not too gamey, and seafood “casserole” was no such thing! Layers of leek and carrot covered by all manner of fish, steamed white fillets, mussels, prawns, smoked pieces of this, fresh slices of that. And the sauce? A tangy, frothed up savoury cloud almost floating above it all. As innovative as it was substantial.
Each plate was a conversation piece, each course delicious. A modern take on familiar food and well executed. Cheese is Scottish (served with frozen grapes!) and the wine list starts low and heads up very, very slowly.
CYCLE BY
The countryside surrounding Dryburgh is quiet and explored easily by bike or on foot. The hotel keeps mountain bikes if you don’t bring your own. Local hires include Christopher Rainbow in Jedburgh who does tandems too and will deliver.
For an hour or so…
The first port of call (all uphill, but the journey back is sensational!) is to a strange statue of Scotland’s legendary hero, William Wallace, apparently the first ever made. Ordered by the 11th Earl of Buchan it stands glowering over the valley of the Tweed, sword and shield at the ready. It’s colossal, fully seven metres high and can only really be appreciated by standing underneath. Chiselled out of Red Sandstone by a local sculptor, John Smith, it was apparently copied from a portrait bought in France. It is HUGE!
Continue up the hill to Scott's View, one of the magnificent vistas over a Scottish landscape to the Eildon Hills, the favourite of Sir Walter Scott. So much so that at his funeral, the horses hauling his coffin were said to have stopped, as they had done every day, to take one final look.
According to the excellent guidebook, "Scotland the Best" by Peter Irvine, the view around from the hill behind is even better, and is now to be known as “Irvine’s View”!
For the day…
Along the same road but a good five miles on towards Kelso is Smailholm Tower, a 15th century tower house/farmstead owned by the famous Border family Pringle (before they went on to make all those golfing sweaters!). Despite being ‘just’ a farm, it’s position and defences are testament to the ferocious battles that dominated this region for many centuries. It’s beautiful countryside for a picnic and inside is an intriguing exhibition of period dolls acting out a variety of contemporaneous activities. This is where Sir Walter Scott was first inspired to write. According to the display his “Minstrelsy of The Scottish Borders” was a collection of local ballads that had only ever been passed through generations by song and on asking the old woman who sang them if she felt his written version was a good thing, she said no, that writing it all down had “spoiled” them!
Overnight…
The Four Abbeys cycle route is a much more ambitious journey and at 55 miles could theoretically be done in a day. It takes the four greatest abbeys of the region – Dryburgh, Kelso, Jedburgh and Melrose – and the best advice for the route can be found here at Cycling Scotland which suggests that two days might make things easier on the saddle.
Useful links
Buy Scotland the Best from Amazon.co.uk
Added 2008/10/18 @ 00:13:46
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