Exploring the Scottish Borders

No worries, as they say here in Scotland.  I did not roll out of the bed as feared.  That could be partially due to the wedding celebration that was taking place just around the corner from our room, and lasted until about 3:00 a.m.  I'm not complaining, as it is duly noted on the webpage that the hotel hosts such events, and I was forewarned.  I was just a bit surprised to hear "Achy Breaky Hart" as one of the apparent favorites of the night. We are in Scotland, after all.

Today was spent venturing out along the hills and dales of the Scottish Borders, named appropriately as it involves the land that is adjacent to England's "border".  (thereby the name, Border.)

Throughout history, these lands are considered to be the bloodiest, meaning that more battles were fought here just because of the proximity to England, whose sovereigns were intent on invading.  But driving along the little roads of this area, with sheep scattered on nearly every hill on sight, there are few remnants of those days of past.

Tucked off a little road is a viewpoint called "Scott's View".  This was a favorite of Walter C. Scott's.  You can see the river Tweed in my zoomed-in photo.  If you look closely, you can see a little fishing boat on the river.

The panoramas offered from this viewpoint were amazing.    I can only imagine how much more beautiful they would have been had the weather not been overcast and drizzling.

The story goes that Scott's horses were so accustomed to stopping at this point, that when the funeral procession with Scott's body (on a cart pulled by his horses), passed by this point on the way to his burial, the horses stopped just as they would when he would visit this spot.  It's not difficult to see why it was considered his favorite.

Not far from here there is another pull-off with a walk through the woods, that leads to a statue of William Wallace who stands upon a hill, looking south over the River Tweed.

Do you remember the movie, Bravehart?  Well, this is the man who was represented in the movie, played by Mel Gibson.  The movie is not historically accurate, but it certainly is close enough to give you an idea of the battles that went on attempting to keep the country of Scotland from being controlled by the "southern" England.  

This giant statue stands alone, about a third of a mile from the road, and you can only get there by foot. I didn't notice the statue anywhere from a distance, so I find it very interesting that it would be placed so far out of the way.  One really does have to know to look for it.  William Wallace was considered larger than life by his fellow Scotsman, and I can say that the statue definitely represents that aura.

Driving just a bit further down the road, we came to Dryburgh, where an abbey ruins still remains, the spot where Walter C. Scott is buried next to his wife and his son. 

Before we actually entered the grounds of the Abbey, we parked the car and headed towards the entrance.  We were quite surprised to round the corner and see these two ladies, which kind of looked like mirror images, bringing a chuckle to both of us.

They were having a grand time munching on the moss on the trunk of that tree.  

And, as usual,  it didn't take long for Marty to find a friend.

Once we entered the grounds and walked toward the abbey, the sight was pretty amazing.

Dryburgh Abbey was founded in the 12th Century by a sect of Augustinian monks known as White Canons.  Due to its location, it was burned by the English, and rebuilt by the Scots on several occasions.  After the reformation, the ruins were gifted to the Earl of Mar by James VI.  They are now owned and kept preserved by Historic Scotland. 

By this time we were beginning to get some glimpses of sun!  We jumped in the car and began the drive to Jedburgh, which had been our original destination before we got side-tracked.  But we were so glad that we did!

One of the amusing points of Jedburgh is that it did once hold a large castle.  But the townspeople took a real beating attempting to defend it during the nearly constant battles initiated by the English who attempted to overtake it.  In the early 1400's the council of Jedburgh decided that it would be easier to dismantle the castle than to try to defend it from attack.  So a castle has not stood there since the 15th century.  

The one item of interest to me in the town was the Mary Queen of Scots house.

This is an extremely well preserved house where Mary stayed for a spell while she was traveling through the area.  The bedroom where she stayed is in the turret that you can see in the photo.

The house is amazingly well-preserved, and we were at leisure to walk through it.  It isn't furnished in period, but, rather, it has a lot of information regarding the history of Mary Queen of Scots.  It contains a copy of the death decree written by Elizabeth I.  And it also holds a copy of the letter that Mary sent off the night before her execution, explaining that the reason for her death was because she would not relinquish her Catholic beliefs.  She wanted people to know that she held her Catholic Religion dear and was not willing to compromise her beliefs in order to live.  Quite an interesting piece of history to read.

Although there was plenty to see in Jedburgh, we decided to head to Tranquair.  I knew that it closed early at this time of the year, and we wanted to get there in time to tour the building. Unfortunately, it was not so easy to find, and we arrived 35 minutes prior to closing.  

Since the last house tour was an hour prior to closing, we were out of luck.  The building dates back to 1107 and it was originally built as a hunting lodge for the kings and queens of Scotland.  Mary, Queen of Scots, stayed here with her infant son, James VI of Scotland.

In later years, it became a refuge for Catholic priests in times of terror.  Traquair supported Mary Queen of Scots and the Jacobite cause.

As fascinating as the interior would have been to see, we had to satisfy ourselves with walking around the grounds.

This place brews its own beer, and we were able to pop our head into one of the buildings that explained just how they made their special Traquair ales.

                                         

Here's a brief description of the method.

I can tell you with certainty that the guy with the beard has relatives working at the place, because two fellas, who looked an awful lot like him, were walking around in plaid flannel shirts and knit caps on their heads acting as ground guards.  I wasn't quite sure if he was a guide or a tourist, as he had the long beard and wasn't dressed as a guide, but I dared to ask one if he knew where I could find a bathroom.  

He peered at me with his beady eyes and said "We din na have that here, but there are the woods yonder" while pointing in the direction of the woods.  By that point, I saw a name tag on his jacket. 

Real funny, I thought.  My response?  "Yeah, I'll bet!"  He then directed me to a door which said "Cloakroom".    Sure enough, behind the door, there were restrooms.  Don''t know if I'd have figured that one out myself as I thought that Cloakrooms were for hanging coats, but really, had I been desperate enough, (and I was close, believe me) I probably would have just started opening doors in search of one, despite the scary men guarding the place.

Well, we were running on short time before the place closed up, so we headed out in an attempt to get a meal since we hadn't eaten since breakfast.  About 12 miles down the road, we drove into Peebles.

What a lovely town along the River Tweed.  Unfortunately for us, no one was serving dinner prior to six o'clock.  But we did find a restaurant that was still serving lunch at 4:00, so we settled on that for dinner.

Then, we headed to Rosewell for evening mass and arrived with about 5 minutes to spare.  I don't know much about the history of the place, but I can tell you that the grounds are huge.  And the church was actually toasty, although everyone in the place, including the lectors, and ministers kept their coats on.  

When we returned to our hotel, we were in for quite a surprise.  We had mentioned at breakfast that there was a peculiar odor in our room which was affecting my breathing.  Also mentioned that the bathroom door did not close, which Jude was quite aware of.  She told us that she would be more than happy to switch rooms.  Just leave our luggage and they'd even move them for us.

When we arrived for the evening, we were escorted to room 6.

A four poster bed room, complete with a turret.  Just like the place where Mary Queen of Scots stayed, only much larger.  (Let's hope that there is no connection!)

I did notice that the bathroom door doesn't close in this room either. When I mentioned it to Marty, he said that he thinks that it is a hotel rule.  No bathroom doors can close.

He may be onto something, but I don't plan on taking a survey or sneaking into any rooms to see if there is a trend.

I'm looking foward to a great night's sleep!

Tomorrow will be my last day in Scotland.  We're hoping to make a great fun day out of it.

First stop:  The Scottish Mining Museum.  Marty's idea.  Sounds like fun, don't you think?

I'll keep you posted......