Kelso Abbey open daily again after five years

Kelso Abbey is open daily again, 9.30am to 5pm, for the first time in five years. First Minister John Swinney did the honours at the official reopening on 24 July, timed to coincide with the Border Union Show, and Historic Environment Scotland has now finished the masonry consolidation, netting and re-pointing that kept the gates shut.

The abbey was one of Scotland's largest and wealthiest religious houses. King David I invited Benedictine monks from Tiron in northern France to settle at Selkirk, and by 1128 they had moved to Kelso, across the Tweed from David's new castle at Roxburgh. In 1460 the young James III was crowned here after his father died at the siege of that same castle.

Not much of the building survives, mostly the west tower, but what does is among the most impressive medieval stonework in the country. Attention now shifts to 2028 and the 900th anniversary of the monks arriving. The Kelso 900 Group formed earlier this year to plan the celebrations, and further masonry inspections may happen before then. Entry is free.