Day Thirteen - Scottish Borders - Dryburgh Abbey, Abbotsford (Sir Walter Scott) & Melrose Abbey

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Scottish Borders  

River Tweed in Borders

same area w/walking trails

note: on both maps, Newtown/St. Boswell's & Dryburgh Abbey are at lower right, Melrose Abbey is in the center, and Walter Scott's home Abbottsford is on the left, all on River Tweed. 

Both maps show nearby Eildon Hills, which consists of three adjacent peaks, one as high as 1,385 ft. The Hills are owned by the Duke of Buccluech,  Scotland's largest private land owner, but the public has a right of "responsible access" and there are many popular walking trails in the area. 

Dryburgh Arms Pub w/Rooms

It was great being the only guests at Dryburgh Arms at St. Boswells for two weekend nights. On Friday when we checked in at the Pub we were given a key to a big & heavy front door. In little time we noticed the same few Scottish women (in their 30s) who ran the place, including the pub, and they were friendly.   

The old building had a lot of character (but no lift). Our king-sized bed barely fit in the room, so we had to stack luggage against the entry door. If the room seemed small, then high ceilings made up for it.

My wife & I were comfortable overall, and R&L said they were, too. All fixtures were up to date yet the place retained a certain old-timey feel. We were on the second floor, at the front, on the main road. 

Having reserved for Friday & Saturday night, I wasn't sure what to expect as to Pub noise, but the Pub was small, room for 8, standing at the bar, and 4 sitting at a table. There was also a small backyard beer garden deck, mainly for smokers. Most important, no Pub grub was on offer here.

On both nights my wife & I were reading, with the window open, and some voices were heard coming from the beer garden but they never became loud, and all voices & traffic sounds had vanished by 10 pm. Turns out the Dryburgh Arms pub w/rooms is the only Pub in a sleepy little village in the Eildon Hills and they closed at 11 pm.       

DRYBURGH ABBEY RUINS

After another great breakfast the next morning we headed out on foot. Only a block away was a sign indicating St. Cuthbert's Way, which we followed downhill as it turned into a muddy lane, for what seemed like a long time.

Eventually we crossed impressive River Tweed on the Swing Bridge, and walked to nearby Dryburgh Abbey. This is a beautiful medieval Abbey ruin, and, Sir Walter Scott's family are buried here, as well as other persons of interest. 

note - you can enlarge any part of a picture by left-clicking in and then out again.

	River Tweed		swing bridge		Abbey Hotel		approaching the hotel
				Dryburgh Abbey ruins		the west door
	north Transept, where Scott's family is buried		the Scott family had a connection to the Abbey land		Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)		Scott family grave
		walking around the Abbey		south Transept
	east facing windows		where the refectory used to be				ducks heading south in fall
		also buried at the north Transept....		...British WWI Field Marshal Douglas Haig		see note
	River Tweed & Eildon Hills		walking back to St. Boswell's...		in the Eildon Hills

note: On the side of the base stone it reads: "Cross of Sacrifice to the dead of Lord Haig's Armies in France and Flanders".

Dryburgh Abbey was built in the 1100s. English armies partially wrecked it in 1322.  'It is said than in 1322, while retreating south to England, following an unsuccessful attack on Edinburgh, English King Edward II's army took exception to the sound of Dryburgh Abbey's bells being rung, to celebrate the Scottish victory. In frustrated revenge, the English army burned & sacked Dryburgh Abbey & nearby Melrose Abbey'. 

This assembled paraphrase is from Borders Tales and Trails, 2018, Torchflame Books, by Kenneth & Norman Turnbull.  (See Bibliography page for all sources of info during the trip).

We crossed the Swing Bridge again & took a different walking route back to Dryburgh Arms.

Later in the day we drove to see Abbottsford, in Tweedbank, a few miles from Melrose.  

ABBOTTSFORD  

Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832) intended that his house would become a museum, once his family had passed it down for a few generations. In his lifetime, he was an extraordinary collector of all things Scottish.      

When we first arrived at the Visitor Center, we went to the popular second floor cafe. 

			view from cafe		in a walled garden		sweet peas in the fall
		main entrance		French soldier's pierced armor, see note 1		Scott wrote all of his books at this library desk
	River Tweed out back		another library		another ceiling		fall colors & River Tweed
		drawing room		see note 2		Scott's collectibles
	view from the River

note 1 - a Docent said that in June 1815, six weeks after defeating Napoleon's Armies at Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington gave Walter Scott (and other UK gentleman) a personal tour of the battlefield, and Scott returned home with this polished French soldier's damaged armor, which he placed on display at the main entrance to his home, where it still is.       

note 2 - this hand-painted Chinese wallpaper was a gift from a cousin of Walter Scott, who worked for the East India company, in India, and 200 years later it still looks attractive. 

Walter Scott grew up in New Town, Edinburgh. Just just like his father, he earned a Law Degree from the well-regarded U. of E.  His father was an accomplished solicitor and also a (seasonal) Clerk at the Court of Session, Scotland's highest Civil Court. 

As to his legal career, Walter Scott became the Sheriff of Selkirkshire, an office he held for 30 years. For many of those years he also held the lucrative position as a (seasonal) Clerk of the Court of Session. Back then it took a horse (or hired carriage) three hours to get from Selkirk to Edinburgh. 

In his private life, Scott was the most famous author of his time, with best-seller novels Ivanhoe & Lady of the Lake, and the Waverly series (29 books in all) appealing to readers across Europe and America, and of course throughout Scotland.  

Walter Scott re-created & romanticized the Scottish Highlands, making them a place where heroes lead lives as noble warriors. Scott is given credit for completely revising the international image of Scotland. 

He had a fantastic imagination and was said to be able to write for ten or more hours, usually w/o punctuation, leaving that to his editor & publisher. 

Walter Scott created a new literary genre, the Historical Novel, which has thrived ever since. 

Substantial income from his huge outpouring of poems, novels, and other writings enabled Scott in the 1820s to expand his Abbottsford property from 110 to 1,400 acres. He brought in an architect & builder to increase the size of the rooms at Abbottsford, which he often referred to as "Conundrum Castle".   

MELROSE ABBEY (also known as St. Mary's Abbey)

We arrived in Melrose too late to go on an inside tour, but some good views could be found from surrounding streets.      

	first look at the Abbey		climbing a wall to get a photo
				classic Georgian style house
	Eidon Hills to the south		Rich in the garden		north side of the Abbey...
		public warning  signs		don't fall into a medieval culvert		St. Mary's Abbey, Melrose
	window within a window		post-sunset shot

As mentioned, Melrose Abbey was attacked & burned by Edward II's army, in 1322, heading home after failing to take Edinburgh Castle. Scottish King Robert Bruce immediately helped the monks rebuild the Abbey.

Before he died in 1329, he asked his friend Sir James Douglas (from the Borders) to carry his heart on a Crusade to the Holy Land, and afterwards to bury it under the altar at Melrose Abbey, and Sir Douglas accomplished both tasks.   

Even though the Abbey began to fall into ruin in the 1600s, it continued to be used as a Parish church until 1810.  Info here is from Borders Tales and Trails as cited above.

After our Abbey visit we had dinner at Herges on the Loch, a reservation made about a year ago, but at 5:30 pm on a fall Saturday we could have just walked in, it was so uncrowded. Due to a shift change, and to our lower-level seating, closer to the lake, we went unnoticed for about 30 minutes before someone came to take an order. 

Soon thereafter we were able to toast, once again, to our good fortune on this trip. Then we had a nice dinner, at sunset, above a small loch with swans, and the sense of fall was in the air. 

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Postscript - Walter Scott continued - he also lead an investigation that discovered the Scottish Royal Jewels (lost for 2 centuries?) in the bowels of Edinburgh Castle. Thus was he knighted and became Sir Walter Scott. In addition, he somehow became a personal friend with England's King George IV, who had read all of his books and wanted to get to know him better. At least a few times Scott spent long weekends alone in the King's company at Windsor Castle. 

In 1824, King G4 became the first King of England to visit Edinburgh. He only gave the Scottish government three weeks' notice. Walter Scott was asked to facilitate the entire visit, including lodging, meals, and public ceremonies/spectacles, etc. 

George IV was a huge (>300 lbs.) success partly because he wore Scottish tartan, which had been outlawed in Scotland 80 years before, and the crowds went nuts. 

Times had changed from earlier centuries of mutual animosity with England. For the last hundred years, Scotland had greatly profited from being allowed to trade with all British ports around the world, including the US, raising GDP, and the Scots people were grateful.  Never was a British King more welcome...

Finally, the City of Edinburgh prides itself (in a literary sense) on having named its main train station, Waverly Station, after its preeminent author's most popular novels. Because of outstanding scholars like Adam Smith and David Hume, 'Embru has seen itself as 'the Athens of the North'.