Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
For an island tour, the
Isle of Arran
offers excellent cycling opportunities. The 55-mile coastal road circuit (
Click here
) is stunning and is worth splitting into two or three days.
Kelso
POP 5116
Kelso, a prosperous market town with a broad, cobbled square flanked by Georgian build-
ings, has a cheery feel and an historic appeal. During the day it's a busy little place, but
after 8pm you'll have the streets to yourself. The town has a lovely site at the junction of
the Rivers Tweed and Teviot, and is one of the most enjoyable places in the Borders.
Sights
Floors Castle
(
www.floorscastle.com
;
adult/child £8/4; 11am-5pm May-Oct)
Grandiose Floors Castle
is Scotland's largest inhabited mansion, home to the Duke of Roxburghe, and overlooks
the Tweed about a mile west of Kelso. Built by William Adam in the 1720s, the original
Georgian simplicity was 'improved' in the 1840s with the addition of rather ridiculous
battlements and turrets. Inside, view the vivid colours of the 17th-century Brussels
tapestries in the drawing room and the intricate oak carvings in the ornate ballroom. It
opens at 10.30am from June to September and is also open over Easter.
CASTLE
RUINS
Kelso Abbey
(HS;
www.historic-scotland.gov.uk
; Bridge St; 9.30am-6.30pm Apr-Sep,
9.30am-4.30pm Sat-Wed Oct-Mar)
Once one of the richest abbeys in southern Scotland,
Kelso Abbey was built by the Tironensians, an order founded at Tiron in Picardy and
brought to the Borders around 1113 by David I. English raids in the 16th century reduced
it to ruins, though what remains today is some of the finest surviving Romanesque archi-
tecture in Scotland.
