Abbeys & priories · Scottish Lowlands
Scottish abbeys of the Borders
Four ruined Norman abbeys in the Tweed Valley.
King David I of Scotland founded four great abbeys in the Borders between 1136 and 1150 — Melrose, Jedburgh, Kelso and Dryburgh. All were repeatedly sacked by English armies in the wars of independence, and finally destroyed in the Reformation. What remains today is a clutch of skeletal red-sandstone ruins set in pastoral Border-country valleys, each within an hour's drive of the others. A perfect two-day tour from Edinburgh or Newcastle.
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