So fully refreshed we set off for Kelso today where I have found a couple of walks around the town, on the way over we wondered if we should have stayed further east as we will be seeing a lot of the A72 over the next few days. Kelso is about an hour away, but unfortunately when we got there following the signs to the car park proved a little challenging as the signage vanished just when you needed it! But we finally succeeded and parked the car right next to the Abbey. The first walk took us up to the race course and golf course which actually seem to be joined it doesn’t look like you can play golf when there is a race on as the race course seems to cut the golf course in half! Once we had finished that walk we set off to the other side of town and a visit to the Abbey which was founded in the 12th century by a community of Tironensian monks, unfortunately it was sacked in one of the wars with the English and is now a ruin. We then walked over the bridge that was actually the blue print for Westminster bridge (the one that was sold to the US) it even has a couple of the original street lamps. We walked up to the millennium view point which gives a panoramic view of Kelso, then it was back down to the river and back to the car for lunch.
After lunch we set off for Smailholm Tower which is a small tower atop a crag which has wide views over the surrounding countryside. Unfortunately it was damaged during the winter storms so we couldn’t go in, but we did walk up to it then round the grounds being chased in places by a number of rabbits. Our final stop of the day was Dryburgh Abbey, the final resting place of Sir Walter Scott, but on the way we went up to Scotts viewpoint which is said to be where his funeral procession stopped as the horses were used to stopping there as he always stopped to look at the view. Dryburgh Abbey is actually in remarkably good shape despite the fact it has been a ruin for 400 years, obviously it is not somewhere you could move into but you could definitely see the layout and get a view of how the monks lived. Once we had finished looking round we set off back to Peebles and a relax before getting something to eat.
