A grey stone farmhouse with several chimneys stands against rolling hills, a wildflower meadow in the foreground.

A collection · Places to stay

The Best Places to Stay in the South of Scotland

Rolling hills, quiet glens and a coast with hardly anyone on it. These are the best places to stay in the south of Scotland, in Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders, from a lighthouse on the Rhins to the oldest inhabited house in the country.

Curated and written by Hidden Scotland

Updated 13 November 2026.

You follow the Tweed past Melrose, and the hills close in, round and green, with hardly a car on the road. Most people drive straight through the south of Scotland on their way north, and they miss the best of it. In the Borders you can sleep in a castle still lived in by the family who built it, or in a canopied bed at Traquair, which has stood since 1107. A Victorian farmhouse in the Yarrow Valley has a cottage garden by a waterfall. In Dumfries and Galloway, the Solway coast is all country houses and wide skies, and on the Rhins you can stay in the keepers' rooms of a working lighthouse. Down at Portpatrick there's a lodge on the beach with an outdoor bath, and over the hill near Jedburgh, a house built into the hillside runs on the sun.

More infoYarrowThe SculleryPlace to stay · Sleeps 2

A cottage for two in the Yarrow Valley, inside a Victorian farmhouse rebuilt by the 5th Duke of Buccleuch around 1850. It has its own stable door and a cottage garden above the burn and its waterfall.

More infoCarlopsWilderkin CabinPlace to stay · Sleeps 2

An off-grid cabin in a private glade among wild apple and cherry trees, twenty-five minutes from Edinburgh. There's a hot tub, a fire pit and a picture window across the gorse and heather to the Pentland Hills.

More infoJedburghThe House in the HillPlace to stay · Sleeps 4

A house for four built into the hillside near Jedburgh, off the grid and powered by the sun and the ground. It has a wood-fired hot tub and spring water from its own borehole.

Selkie's Haven Lodge, a white building of two wings with pointed slate roofs, a table and a palm on its terrace.

More infoPortpatrickSelkie's Haven LodgePlace to stay · Sleeps 2

A lodge for two on the beach at Portpatrick, on the Dunskey Estate, where the Southern Upland Way passes the door. There's an outdoor bath and shower, and a fire pit.

A landscape view of the Blue Cabin at the foot of the brae, lamps lit by its red door and boats drawn up on the grass.

More infoCockburnspathBlue Cabin by the SeaPlace to stay · Sleeps 4

A cabin for four at the top of the beach at Cove harbour, on the Berwickshire coast, looking over the rock pools. Inside are antiques, Orkney chairs and a library, and seals and dolphins are sometimes seen from the terrace.

KirkbeanCavensCountry house

A country house in ten acres of gardens near the Solway coast, run by its owner, with eight bedrooms. Dinner at seven and breakfast come with every stay.

KirkcolmCorsewall Lighthouse HotelHotel

Eleven rooms in the old keepers' quarters of a working lighthouse on the far tip of the Rhins of Galloway, with nothing but the sea in front.

ThornhillDrumlanrig Castle cottagesCottage · Sleeps 8

Cottages on the Buccleuch estate in Nithsdale, a few minutes from Drumlanrig Castle, with wood burners and big gardens. Slatehouse sleeps eight and has its own hot tub.

LauderThirlestane CastleCastle

Five suites in the south wing of a 16th-century castle at Lauder, still home to the Maitland family. There are lodges with hot tubs in the estate's woods too.

PeeblesCringletieHotel

A red sandstone house with turrets in twenty-eight acres outside Peebles, with fifteen rooms and suites and a walled garden that dates from 1666.

InnerleithenTraquair HouseB&B

Four bedrooms with antique furniture and canopied beds inside Traquair, Scotland's oldest inhabited house, which dates from 1107. It's open all year.

DryburghDryburgh Abbey HotelHotel

A country house hotel on the Tweed, near Melrose, in wooded grounds beside the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey. Dogs are welcome.

LangholmEskdale HotelHotel

A hotel on the old Market Place in Langholm, with salmon and sea trout fishing on the Esk and a lock-up for bikes. Breakfast is included.

Isle of WhithornThe Steam Packet InnInn

An inn with rooms on the harbour at Isle of Whithorn, at the foot of the Machars, with the beaches and forest walks of the peninsula close by.

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