Hidden Scotland
Sign in

Places to visit
in the Scottish Borders.

It’s 20:04 in the Borders.
Scottish Borders

Abbeys, towers and the Tweed.

The Scottish Borders roll from the Pentlands to the Cheviots in a patchwork of green hills, river valleys and stone towns. The Tweed winds through the middle of it all, past four great ruined abbeys and the house Sir Walter Scott built for himself. There are castles and peel towers from centuries of fighting over the border, grand country houses and a short, wild coast of cliffs and fishing villages. These are the places in the Borders we think are most worth your time.

CastlesMuseumsGalleriesGardensVillagesAbbeys
Place of the day19 hours ago

Milnholm Cross.

A tall medieval stone cross in a field south of Newcastleton, set up in memory of a laird of Mangerton, carved with initials and a sword.

Read about it
From our archive19 hours agoScottish BordersBuccleuch ArmsScottish BordersLochcarron of ScotlandScottish BordersDryburgh AbbeyScottish BordersAbbotsford, Home of Sir Walter ScottScottish BordersKailzie GardensScottish BordersLeaderfoot Viaduct

The Scottish Borders this autumn, in our photographs.

Six places in the Scottish Borders, each as we found it.

Read the guide
Places to visit19 hours ago

Eyemouth Harbour.

The busy fishing harbour of Eyemouth on the Berwickshire coast, fishing since at least 1298, overlooked by Gunsgreen House.

See the place
Did you know19 hours ago

A beacon lit by mistake at Hume Castle in 1804 called out 3,000 volunteers.

On 31 January 1804 the beacon at Hume Castle, in the Borders, was lit in error. It set off false alarms across southern Scotland and called out 3,000 volunteers, and the night became known as the Great Alarm.

See Hume Castle · Scottish Borders
From our guide18 hours ago

Kelso Abbey.

Dedicated on 3 May 1128, Kelso’s splendid abbey was once the grandest and wealthiest in the Borders. Today it stands as the most heavily ruined of the region’s four gigantic abbeys – thanks in part to the cannons of Henry VIII’s armies – but makes up for this with thick helpings of medieval atmosphere.

See the place
True or false18 hours ago

True or false: tweed cloth takes its name from the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders.

Places to visit18 hours ago

St Abbs.

A small fishing village on the Berwickshire coast, with a working harbour, a lifeboat station and some of the best diving in Britain.

See the place
From Issue 3 of Hidden Scotland magazineIssue 318 hours ago

A Pilgrimage to the Borders Abbeys

The Borders Abbeys Way, a 68-mile circular walk linking Melrose, Dryburgh, Kelso and Jedburgh abbeys through the towns, rivers and old drove roads of the Scottish Borders.

Read the story
From our guide17 hours ago

Jedburgh Abbey.

It took more than seven decades to build this colossal 12th-century abbey, and although some 460 years have passed since it was disestablished, it remains a magnificent sight. Blending Romanesque and early Gothic styles, it still boasts a herb garden, as well as the remains of a refectory and dormitory. Its location, mere miles from the English border, has bequeathed it a long history of being targeted by invading armies.

See the place
Places to visit17 hours ago

Leaderfoot Viaduct.

A soaring nineteen-arch railway viaduct of 1865 over the Tweed near Melrose, 130 feet high and restored in the 1990s.

See the place
In the Borders17 hours ago

Cedar Hus, the travelling wood-fired sauna near Melrose, has won the Innovation Award at the South of Scotland Thistle Awards.

The sauna moves round the Borders, setting up somewhere new every few months. "When we started Cedar Hus, we didn't have it all figured out and we still don't," said its manager, Joanna Graham.

Read about it
From the magazine17 hours agoThe printed copy of Issue 10Issue 10Spring / Summer 2025

The Waterloo Monument, a 150ft stone column on a hilltop near Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders, took two attempts to build, because the first one collapsed.

The lofty Doric column was commissioned by a local nobleman to celebrate the Duke of Wellington's victory over Napoleon, and it was built from stone quarried nearby. The first attempt did not stand for long: in 1815 it fell 'with a tremendous crash'. The builders started again, and the second column has stood on the skyline ever since, for some 200 years now. Make your way up to its base for the reward, because the views from up there are staggering.

See Waterloo Monument · Scottish Borders