Another day that started by driving east on the A72 for an hour to return to Kelso to visit Floors Castle. Originally built for the 1st Duke of Roxburghe in 1721, it claims to be the largest inhabitted castle in Scotland. However, all Scottish castles lay claim to some unique fact as if it was a competition! As it had just started raining there was a quick couple of pictures of the outside before visiting inside where we were welcomed by a roaring fire.
Whilst admiring the view over the river Tweed flowing through the ‘back garden’ we discovered King James’ II of Scotland ambitions to increase Scotland’s standing saw him besiege Roxburgh Castle in 1460, one of the last Scottish castles still held by the English after the Wars of Independence.The Castle would have stood on the hilly ridge about a mile away from Floors Castle, although Floors hadn’t been built at that time.
For this siege, James took a large number of cannons imported from Flanders. On 3 August, he was attempting to fire one of these cannons, known as “the Lion”, when it exploded and killed him. The Scotts continued with the siege and the castle was sacked a couple of days later.
After this it was back to the car and start driving back towards Peebles to visit Melrose Abbey, the 3rd of the ‘4 Abbeys’; the 4 largest abbeys of the Borders Region, Kelso, Melrose, Dryburgh and Jedburgh. A quick picnic lunch in the car as it had started raining more heavily and then time for a look around. Melrose Abbey was founded in 1136 by Cistercian monks on the request of King David I of Scotland and is probably most famous for a lead container believed to hold the embalmed heart of Robert the Bruce being found in 1921 below the Chapter House site; it was rediscovered in a 1998 excavation.
Our final visit of the day, as we continued west towards Peebles was to Abbotsford House, the home of the Author Sir Walter Scott. Scott designed the house himself, he first built a small villa and named it Abbotsford, creating the name from a ford nearby where previously abbots of Melrose Abbey used to cross the river. Scott then added to the house and made it into a mansion, building into the walls many sculptured stones from ruined castles and abbeys of Scotland, including a number of pieces from nearby Melrose Abbey.
The rain hadn’t stopped during our visit, so we had a quick walk round the walled garden then dashed back to the car for the final bit of the drive back to Peebles and the House.