Hotels in 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.