Late Hotel Deals
Dunalastair Hotel £50
Crieff Hydro £110
Dalhousie Castle £135
Kingsmill Hotel £89
Oban Caledonian £60
Westin Turnberry £89
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Guide to Scottish Borders
Welcome to Selkirk
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Intro · Duns · Eyemouth · Galashiels · Hawick · Jedburgh · Kelso · Lauder · Melrose · Peebles · Portpatrick · Selkirk · St Boswells · Stobo ·
Selkirk was the first municipality to benefit from King David I's ambitious plan to erect abbeys and priories throughout Scotland. But Selkirk Abbey lasted for only 20 years before the Tyronensian monks, who apparently preferred Kelso's flatter location, abandoned it. The town's Market Place is squeezed into one corner by the lively A7 road, which passes through the centre of town. It contains a statue of Sir Walter Scott, county sheriff here for 33 years. At the other end of the High Street is a memorial to the Battle of Flodden of 1513. Visit Halliwell's House, the town's oldest building, for an excellent display featuring Selkirk's ironmongery industry, an important part of its heritage.Driving north from Selkirk there is a minor road, the B6360, well signposted for Abbotsford House, the Tweedside mansion of Sir Walter Scott. Scott bought the old farmhouse of Cartleyhole, or 'Clarty-hole' as it was dubbed, in 1811, immediately replacing the name and, in stages, building the present house. One of the great architectural charms of the place is its mish-mash of styles.
Incorporated in the building's fabric are numerous inscribed stones rescued from sites across south-eastern Scotland. Scott assembled a large collection of curiosities, items such as a lock of Bonnie Prince Charlie's hair, Flora MacDonald's pocket book, Montrose's sword, Rob Roy's sporran purse and over 9,000 books. It was in Abbotsford that Scott wrote most of his famous Waverely Novels.
The Galashiels 'Manufacturer's Corporation's motto encapsulates the community's spirit, 'We dye to live and live to die'. Just off the main shopping area and along Huddersfield Road is Peter Anderson's Woollen Mill, which produces the world's largest range of pure wool and worsted tartans and may be explored by guided tour.
The A72 west of Galashiels meets up with some spectacular stretches of the River Tweed once it descends on to its plain. The roadside village of Walkerburn has the Scottish Museum of Woollen Textiles, which is worth a short stop if you really are interested in wool. Admittance is free and the displays show the history of the wool trade from its early days as a cottage industry to the fashionable business that it has become. There is a large mill shop and a coffee shop.
Traquair House is signposted from Innerleithen following the B709. One of the most remarkable homes in Scotland, it is also said to be the oldest continuously inhabited. The same family since as far back as the tenth century, has owned the grounds. The present Traquair House started as a twelfth century keep to which was added a fifteenth century tower. There were further extensions throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, resulting in an odd but impressive conglomeration of period styles.
One of Traquair House's most famous residents was Mary Queen of Scots who stayed here with her husband, Darnley, in 1566. Prince Charles Edward Stuart, 'Bonnie Prince Charlie', was a brief guest on his march to London in 1745. The main 'Bear Gates', as they are called, are said to remain shut, on the owner's pledge to Charles, until a Stuart king or queen once again sits on the British throne. You enter the grounds, therefore, by the side entrance. Through the back, there is a working eighteenth century brew-house fermenting Traquair Ale. There are craft-shops in nearby buildings.
