Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
EATING AND DRINKING
Border Meringues
Unit 1, Old Station Yard,
Edinburgh Rd; 0.5 mile north off the Abbey opposite
the Shell garage.
T
01835 863383
. An unlikely setting
for a café /cake shop in an anonymous industrial estate
building on the outskirts of town, but locals go out of
their way for this place. There are all manner of cakes
and tray bakes here, with prices starting at £1.50.
Mon-
Sat 10.30am-4.30pm.
Clock Tower Bistro
Abbey Place
T
01835 869788,
W
clocktowerbistro.co.uk.
This conjures up vibrant,
challenging dishes like the venison wellington at £15. The
menus - particularly the vegetarian options - show
refreshing attention to creativity, and a wide choice to suit
all budgets; light-bite lunches from £4.25.
Restaurant:
Tues-Sat 10am-4pm & 6-9pm. Bar: Thurs 6-11pm, Fri
6pm-1am, Sat noon-1am, Sun noon-11pm.
2
Hawick and around
Despite being a busy, working mill town,
HAWICK
(pronounced “hoyk”) has a
surprising number of visitors, the majority of whom come in search of bargains from
its woollen knitwear factory outlets. Its textiles industry has been the mainstay of the
economy for the last few hundred years, but the town's true heyday came with the
advent of steam power which saw a rapid expansion from the town's fifty or so
watermills and the formation of knitwear brands like Pringle, Lyle & Scott and Peter
Scott. Much of the Victorian architecture here reflects the prosperity of this period,
particularly the Scots Baronial town hall halfway down the high street. he town's
pre-industrial fortunes were not so; good, though one exception is a skirmish in 1514
when the local Hawick callants (boys) defeated a small English force and captured their
banner, an event immortalized by the statue at the end of the high street.
Hermitage Castle
16 miles south of Hawick, signposted off the B6399 • April-Sept daily 9.30am-5.30pm • £4.50; HS
Bleak and forbidding,
Hermitage Castle
is bedevilled by all sorts of horrifying legends:
one owner, William Douglas, starved his prisoners to death, while Lord de Soulis,
another occupant, engaged the help of demons to fortify the castle in defiance of the
king, Robert the Bruce, who had him boiled to death. From the outside, the castle
remains an imposing structure, its heavy walls topped by stepped gables and a tidy
corbelled parapet. However, the apparent homogeneity is deceptive: certain features were
invented during a Victorian restoration, a confusing supplement to the ad hoc alterations
that had already transformed the fourteenth-century original. he ruinous interior is a bit
of a letdown, but look out for the tight Gothic doorways and gruesome dungeon.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION
HAWICK AND AROUND
By bus
The main bus stand is just north of the centre in
Mart St.
Destinations
Edinburgh (Mon-Sat half-hourly, Sun hourly;
2hr 5min); Galashiels (Mon-Sat half-hourly, Sun hourly;
40min); Jedburgh (Mon-Sat hourly; 25min); Kelso (Mon-
Sat hourly; 1hr); Langholm (Mon-Sat hourly, 4 on Sun;
40min); Selkirk (Mon-Sat half-hourly, Sun hourly; 20min).
Tourist o
ce
The tourist o
ce is in Tower Mill, a
converted water mill housing a cinema and a good café-bar
at the southern end of High St (Mon & Wed 10am-5.30pm,
Tues & Thurs 10am-6.15pm, Fri & Sat 10am-7.15pm, Sun
noon-3.30pm;
T
01450 373993).
EATING
Turnbull's
The Horse Monument, 4 Oliver Place.
T
01450 372020
,
W
turnbullshop.com.
A family business
since 1855, this characterful deli/café is an essential stop if
you're in Hawick. As well as serving light lunches (from
around £3.50) and the town's best coffee, beautifully
packaged, old-fashioned products are on sale such as the
shop's own blended whisky and peppermint sweets known
as Hawick Balls.
Mon-Sat 9.30am-5pm, Sun 11am-4pm.
