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Kelso

Sir Walter Scott considered Kelso “the most beautiful, if not the most romantic village in the land”. Sir Walter was very familiar with this dignified little town, set around the meeting of the rivers Tweed and Teviot. As a boy he attended the Old Grammar School which was actually based within the melancholy ruins of Kelso Abbey (Historic Scotland). Founded in 1128 by David I, it became the richest and most powerful monastery in southern Scotland. Successive English invasions culminated in the Earl of Hertford’s merciless attack in 1545 when all the monks were murdered and the abbey set on fire. The fine Norman and Gothic detail of the remaining transepts and façade give some idea of the glorious building that once stood here.

From Kelso’s elegant and spacious cobbled Market Square (said to be the largest in Scotland), Bridge Street leads to John Rennie’s fine 5-arched bridge over the Tweed. It was built in 1803 and Rennie was clearly pleased with his work since, some 8 years later, he used virtually the same design for his Waterloo Bridge in London.

There are grand views from the bridge of Junction Pool, the famous salmon fishing beat where the waters of the Tweed and Teviot mingle. If you want to try your angling skills here you must book years ahead and pay somewhere around £5000 per rod per week. Above the pool rises a high defensive mound, the site until 1550 of Roxburgh Castle. It was during a siege of the castle in 1460 that James II was killed outright when a cannon accidentally blew up in his face.

The War Memorial Garden in Bridge Street was part of the former abbey grounds. It has helped Kelso to win the Beautiful Scotland and Britain in Bloom competitions on several occasions. The garden was gifted to the town by the Duke of Roxburgh in 1921.

In July every year the Kelso Civic Week takes place, with many events that echo similar ceremonies in other Borders towns.

To the west of Kelso, within parkland overlooking the Tweed, stands the magnificent Floors Castle, Scotland’s largest inhabited castle and the ancestral home of the Duke and Duchess of Roxburghe. The original building, designed by William Adam and started in 1721, was a rather austere Georgian mansion. The mansion was transformed in the 1830s by  the fashionable architect William Playfair into a dramatic masterpiece of the Scottish Baronial style, its roofs cape fretted with a panorama of stone pinnacles and turrets crowned by lead-capped domes. This palatial transformation was commissioned by the 6th Duke who had succeeded to the title at the age of seven. His father’s succession had occurred under rather unusual circumstances. When the 4th Duke died childless, the inheritance was disputed between several claimants. After a 7-year legal battle, the House of Lords decided that Sir James Innes held the superior right to the title of 5th Duke. Sir James was then 76 years old and childless, prompting fears that on his death the succession would again be contested. Rising nobly to this challenge, the new duke married the youthful Harriet Charlewood and became a father for the first time in his 81st year.

The 6th Duke was a discriminating collector of works of art and the magnificent State Rooms of the castle display many fine paintings, amongst them portraits by Gainsborough, Reynolds and the Scottish artists Allan Ramsay and Henry Raeburn. The collection has since been supplemented by modern masters such as Matisse, Bonnard and Augustus John.

The extensive parkland and gardens overlooking the Tweed provide a variety of wooded walks and the walled garden contains splendid herbaceous borders. Queen Victoria visited the duke in 1876 and the summerhouse that was specially built for her can be seen in the outer walled garden.

Springfield Park is the venue, late in July each year, of the Border Union Show which features not only agriculture but fairground amusements, trade stands and sometimes parachutists.

Horse racing in Kelso began in 1822, and Kelso Race Course (known as the “Friendly Course”) hosts horse racing all year.

The Millennium Viewpoint, on the other side of the Tweed from Kelso and close to Maxwellheugh, was constructed in the year 2000, and is a vantage point for great views of the town and surrounding area.