Melrose

Melrose's accommodation is concentrated around its compact centre, where former coaching inns and townhouses have been run as hotels for generations, several of them still in the hands of the families who built their reputations. Burts Hotel and its sister property The Townhouse both sit on or just off Market Square, putting guests within a few minutes' walk of the abbey, the Eildon Hills path and the town's restaurants, while the George and Abbotsford Hotel occupies a former coaching inn once frequented by Sir Walter Scott himself. These town-centre options suit anyone travelling without a car or planning to spend most of their trip on foot.

Just outside Melrose, a different style of stay is on offer. Dryburgh Abbey Hotel occupies eleven acres of grounds beside the ruined abbey that gives it its name, a few minutes' drive from town and well suited to a quieter, more country-house pace. Fauhope House, a five-star bed and breakfast in Arts and Crafts style set in bluebell woodland above the Tweed valley, and Bowden House, a boutique B&B directly on St Cuthbert's Way in the neighbouring village of Bowden, both offer a more intimate alternative to a hotel, typically with just a handful of rooms and hosts who know the surrounding walking routes well. The Buccleuch Arms in St Boswells, a few miles downstream, gives a similar village base for those planning to take in Dryburgh Abbey and the wider Tweed valley.

Whichever style suits, most of Melrose's accommodation shares a few things in common: proximity to genuinely good walking straight from the door, kitchens that make a point of using Border beef, lamb and Tweed salmon, and an easy familiarity with the abbey, the Eildon Hills and St Cuthbert's Way that comes from decades of hosting the walkers and history enthusiasts who make up much of the town's visiting public. Booking ahead is worth doing around the Melrose Sevens rugby weekend in April and through the busier summer months, when the town's small stock of rooms fills quickly.

Melrose rewards visitors who are happy to walk between its attractions rather than drive, since almost everything below sits within the town or a short stroll of it.

• Melrose Abbey is the town's centrepiece, a roofless Cistercian ruin with elaborate stone carving, a small museum of recovered artefacts, and the reputed burial place of Robert the Bruce's heart.
• The Eildon Hills offer a signposted circular walk to all three summits directly from the town centre, with panoramic views over the Tweed valley as the reward for the climb.
• Priorwood Garden and Harmony Garden, both cared for by the National Trust for Scotland, sit either side of the abbey and specialise in dried flowers and orchard fruit respectively, each with views back towards the ruins.
• Abbotsford, Sir Walter Scott's extraordinary home a few miles outside town, can be reached on foot along the river or by a short drive, and its library and turreted rooms are open to visitors for most of the year.
• Trimontium Museum, recently reopened after a major refurbishment, tells the story of the Roman fort that once stood near Melrose and holds one of the best collections of Roman military finds in Scotland.
• St Cuthbert's Way begins in Melrose and threads sixty miles across the Borders and Northumberland to Lindisfarne, and even a short section along the Tweed makes for a pleasant riverside walk.
• Melrose Rugby Football Club, home of the Melrose Sevens tournament held every spring, gives the town a strong claim to being the spiritual home of sevens rugby, and the ground is worth a look even outside match days.
• Dryburgh Abbey, the most romantically sited of the Border abbeys and Scott's actual burial place, lies a short drive from Melrose in a wooded loop of the Tweed.

Melrose punches well above its size for food, helped by its position amid prime Border farmland and the salmon-rich waters of the Tweed. Game, Border lamb and Tweed salmon feature strongly on local menus, alongside Scottish Borders cheeses and the soft fruit grown in the fertile ground around the river. The town's longest-standing dining room, at Burts Hotel on Market Square, has held AA Rosettes for its cooking since the mid-1990s and remains the benchmark for a proper Borders dinner. Market Square itself is ringed with independent cafes and delicatessens serving locally baked bread, and the weekly farmers' markets held in the wider Borders region bring Tweed valley produce, preserves and baking into the town on a rotating basis. Pubs such as the George and Abbotsford's bar and the coaching inns of nearby St Boswells serve hearty, unpretentious food built around local meat and game, while a short drive into the surrounding countryside turns up farm shops selling Borders beef, honey and seasonal vegetables direct from the producers.

Camping around Melrose means choosing between a pitch within walking distance of the abbey and Eildon Hills, or a short drive out into the quieter parts of the Tweed valley and the rolling countryside towards Lauder and Selkirk. The most convenient option sits on the fringe of Melrose itself, a well-established touring site with the Eildon Hills as a backdrop and the town centre reachable on foot, making it the natural choice for anyone without a car who still wants to camp rather than take a hotel room.

Further afield, the Borders countryside offers campsites set against their own local landmarks. A short drive south towards Lauder brings campers to a touring park within the historic parkland of a working castle estate, while Selkirk, a few miles west along the Ettrick valley, has a well-equipped municipal site attached to the town's leisure centre, useful for anyone wanting a swim or gym session alongside their pitch. Both are comfortably within range for day trips back into Melrose to see the abbey or walk the Eildons.

All three sites listed here take tents, caravans and motorhomes, though pitch mix and facilities vary, so it is worth checking specifics before booking, particularly around electric hook-up availability and dog policies. Given the modest number of sites directly in and around Melrose, booking ahead for peak summer weekends and the Melrose Sevens period is advisable, especially for sites with hardstanding or serviced pitches.