Mellow Melrose

I love Melrose in the Scottish Borders, its a pleasant, laid-back sort of town which is just great to stroll around........... unless of course you visit whilst it is hosting the Rugby 7's......... then it's bedlam. Luckily we visited it the week after the Rugby 7's and the locals were still recovering!
The great thing about visiting Melrose with the motorhome is that the Caravan Park is almost in the middle of the town. A short walk of about 100 yards from the Caravan Park and you are on the High Street with its shops, cafes and pubs, just brilliant.

View from Vannie at Gibson Park Caravan Site

For our first stroll we headed past the Parish Church to the banks of the River Tweed to enjoy the lovely riverside walk:

Riverside Walk in Melrose

Moira enjoying a walk along the Tweed

At the start of our walk there were some rapids (well a few stones and some rough water):

Upstream of the Tweed Rapids

Downstream of the Tweed Rapids

At was at this point I filmed a few Goosanders on the water near the opposite Bank. What I thought was an innocent gathering of male and female Goosanders looks more like a Goosander love-triangle when I saw the video! ......what do you think?

We carried on with our walk, enjoying views of the old Chain Bridge, Melrose Abbey and the Eildon Hills:

Chain Bridge over the River Tweed at Melrose

Melrose Abbey with Eildon Hills in background

We then headed back in to Melrose, skirting past Melrose Rugby Football Club, where the last remnants of the Rugby 7's stands, barriers and hospitality tents were being dismantled:

Heading back in to Melrose

Melrose Rugby Football Club

That walk set us up for a nice meal in the motorhome, a bit of telly, and off to bed ready for the next day's adventure.
Next morning after breakfast we took a short bus ride to Tweedbank (I know it is easily walkable) and then a ten minute walk took us to Abbotsford House. This was the home of well-known author Sir Walter Scott, famous for creating the 'romantic' view of Scotland that the Victorians loved, through his novels like Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Waverley, The Lady of the Lake, etc.
Abbotsford House was basically bought by Scott so he could retire and enjoy family life, however getting the house and grounds up to the standard he (and his wife) wanted cost so much he had to go back to writing novels and poems in order to pay for it.

Abbotsford House, Home of Sir Walter Scott

Moira at Abbotsford House

We started our tour inside the house, exploring each of the rooms, many of which were jam-packed with items of interest (or were at least of interest to Sir Wattie when he was on his travels). Here are some of the rooms and curios:

Inside the Drawing Room

Wattie and his dug

Might try and build a similar table?

Stringless Harp and Chinese Wallpaper

He was very keen on military memorabilia and in the aptly named armoury there were plenty of examples:

Gun Collection

Armour and Swords

Great Croc Gun

Say Cheese?

He also created some interesting features such as a window painted to look like stain-glass and a saloon-door entrance to a little 'snug' area:

Thro' the Arched Window

Entrance to The Snug

The view of the River Tweed from the Drawing Room was quite enticing so we had to head outside:

View from Drawing Room

View of patio from Drawing Room

Nice Tower

We headed out to the gardens, where we were greeted by a little Dunnock foraging for food:

As it was spring the gardens were not in full bloom but there were still a few nice plants to see such as some pretty Snake's-Head Fritillary and impressive Apple Tree blossom:

Snake's-head Fritillary

Small Apple Tree, plenty of blossom

We then headed round to the grounds at the rear of the house which afforded us a different perspective of this country house:

The Rear View of Abbotsford House

No Rapunzel to let her hair down

Moira, hair under wraps

Eddie, no hair to let down

We then made our way down to the River Tweed:

River Tweed at Abbotsford

Abbotsford House from River Tweed

Pond next to river at Abbotsford

I was impressed by the amount of birds in and around the river at this point, including a Heron fishing in the ponded water next to the river; which then flew off and landed in an area being colonised by noisy Black-headed Gulls:

Those Black-headed Gulls were not happy; in fact nesting/feeding sites must have been in great demand along this short stretch of river as we saw Oystercatchers, Goosanders, Sand Martins, Jackdaws and even a Pied Wagtail vying for a position:

That almost concludes our visit to Abbotsford, on our way out we went past some old workshops and I took a photo of something that might intrigue those of you with an interest in engineering:

A fully-manual pillar drill

It was used for drilling holes in fence posts before electricity was invented............. ah the good old days!!

We walked back to Tweedbank, stopping for a spot of lunch at Herges on the Loch:

Herges on the Loch

Fountain on Gun Knowe Loch

This restaurant is named after another author (cartoonist), this time a Belguim whose most famous character was Tintin. Was he associated with Tweedbank in any way? ............... answers on a postcard please! Plenty of Tintin memorabilia inside the restaurant, including a brilliant painting of Tintin and Snowy drinking alone in a bar?
After a tasty lunch we decided to burn off a few calories and walked back to Melrose along the riverside path:

Riverside path from Tweedbank to Melrose

Gattonside Bridge thro' the trees

Spring Buds on the Trees

We spotted some wildlife on this walk beside the Tweed; including a Buzzard flying over from Gattonside and some Sand Martins resting on a wire across the river:

The views on this walk were not too shabby either:

River Tweed Upstream

River Tweed Downstream 

That evening we treated ourselves to a delicious meal at Burt's Hotel, followed by a 'quiet' drink in the Ship Inn watching the football.
The following morning we chose to stay local and visited a few places in Melrose itself, starting with Priorwood Gardens:

Bird Sculpture at Priorwood Gardens

Melrose Abbey from Priorwood Gardens

This is a peaceful little garden run by the National Trust and is right next to Melrose Abbey. It was a lovely sunny morning when we were there although it was still a bit cool in the shade, so we lingered in the sun for as long as we could.
It has a bit of a wildlife walk which leads to a little orchard area, where we watched this Song Thrush rummage through the dead leaves looking for insects, snails, slugs........... breakfast basically:

After this we grabbed a spot of lunch at Abbey Fine Wines (no not a liquid lunch, they do have a cafe) and then we decided to visit Melrose Abbey:

Melrose Abbey

The Abbey is obviously a ruin......... but it is steeped in history (which I won't bore you with this time) ............however what I did find interesting was that in its current state you get a really good impression of how it was constructed. Basically it is like looking at the skeleton of a building; there are massive walls supported by flying buttresses:

Flying Buttresses supporting the Walls

Buttresses and Pillars

Although there is no glass in the windows, the skeletal structure of the window frames is just as impressive:

Sunlight through Window Frame

Melrose Abbey Main Window Frame

Arched Window and Door

Very impressive, however the best was yet to come!!......... you are allowed to climb up the (many) stairs to the rooftop.......... although there isn't much of a roof left:

Looking down on Melrose Abbey

Melrose Abbey Rooftop

View towards Newstead

View towards Melrose

The following panoramic video probably gives you the best idea of the view from the Abbey roof:

Melrose Abbey has some characterful gargoyles up on the rooftop:

Mouth Wide Open

The most famous of these being the Flying Pig with Bagpipes (I am not joking!):

Just what you'd expect on a religious building?
Melrose Abbey's other claim to fame is that it has the heart of Robert the Bruce buried in its grounds.
The story goes that before he died he requested that his heart be carried in to battle during the crusades in the Holy Land before being returned to Scotland. It was then alleged to be buried in a casket in the grounds at Melrose Abbey.
In the 1920's an archaeological dig found the heart in its casket and it was reburied at an unmarked spot within the grounds. In 1996 another archaeologist rediscovered the mummified heart, which was placed in a new container and reburied, this time in a known location which is now indicated by a stone marker:

Resting Place of Robert the Bruce's Heart

Amazing!
Melrose Abbey is well worth a visit!

That concludes our trip to mellow Melrose, hope you enjoyed it as much as we did (go during the Rugby Sevens if you want it more lively!)

cheers

Teddyedward