This gentle round trip from Melrose to Abbotsford and back covers around 6 miles, mostly along the river and through woodland, so it's an easy one underfoot. It's a brilliant dog walk, though it's worth keeping an eye out for livestock, wildlife and anglers along the Tweed. Stop at Ochiltree's Café at the Abbotsford Visitor Centre for coffee with a view, or Burt's Hotel in Melrose for something more substantial — the visitor centre also has excellent loos and a proper baby-changing area.
Last week we tried our hand at a little Border Reiving.
Well… not exactly.
Nobody stole any cattle, Tom didn't gallop across the border under cover of darkness and, as far as I know, Meg hasn't been outlawed from Scotland.
We did, however, cross the border.
From home on the Northumberland coast, Melrose is around an hour and a quarter away — just far enough to feel as though you've properly gone somewhere, but close enough for an easy day out.
And what a lovely somewhere it is.
Our reason for heading north was actually to meet friends. A couple of times a year they travel to Melrose with their Golden Retriever for specialist stem-cell treatment for arthritis.
It's a fascinating area of veterinary medicine. Stem-cell therapy is increasingly being used in selected dogs with osteoarthritis and other joint problems, particularly where conventional surgery may not be appropriate. The aim isn't to perform some magical Benjamin Button trick on an elderly dog, tempting though that would be, but to help reduce pain and improve mobility and quality of life.
Their treatment meant our friends were staying in the Borders for a few days, which seemed far too good an opportunity to miss.
So we arranged lunch.
Naturally, we turned lunch into an entire day.
A Morning in Melrose
Melrose is gorgeous.
It sits beneath the three distinctive peaks of the Eildon Hills and has that lovely Scottish Borders combination of stone buildings, independent shops and streets that seem made for wandering rather than rushing through.
Then, almost unexpectedly, there are the great Gothic ruins of Melrose Abbey rising above it all.
But the morning was far too beautiful to head indoors.
And we had two dogs who had absolutely no interest in Gothic architecture.
So before lunch, we set off along the River Tweed towards Abbotsford.
It's roughly a three-mile walk from Melrose to Abbotsford, depending on where you start and exactly which paths you wander onto, and it turned out to be one of those wonderfully easy walks where conversation takes over.
The Tweed accompanies you for much of the way.
Trees lean over the river, sunlight catches the water through gaps in the leaves and every so often another dog walker appears around the corner.
Which, as far as Meg is concerned, makes it an exceptionally good walk.
Walking to Abbotsford
Eventually the reason for the name on the signs begins to reveal itself.
Abbotsford was the home of Sir Walter Scott — author of Waverley, Rob Roy and Ivanhoe — who bought a small farm beside the Tweed in 1811 and gradually transformed it into the extraordinary house and estate that stands here today.
Calling it a house feels slightly inadequate.
Turrets, crow-stepped gables, carved stone, armour and architectural ideas borrowed from Scotland's past all came together in what Scott himself called his “conundrum castle.”
Even more interestingly, the surrounding landscape was part of his creation too. Scott was a passionate tree planter, turning what had been relatively bare ground beside the Tweed into woodland and parkland. The Abbotsford Trust now looks after around 120 acres of meadow and native woodland, with riverside paths that remain free to walk.
We didn't tour the house this time.
That feels like another day.
Our destination was considerably more pressing.
Coffee and cake.
The Important Cultural Bit
Ochiltree's Café sits upstairs in the Abbotsford visitor centre and has a balcony overlooking the estate.
On a morning like this, the view is fabulous.
We found ourselves sitting there with coffee, cake and two pleasantly tired dogs, looking across a landscape that Sir Walter Scott started shaping more than two hundred years ago.
There are worse ways to spend a morning.
The food was good, prices perfectly reasonable and, for anyone travelling with a baby, the facilities deserve a Lucy footnote:
Excellent loos and a proper baby-change area.
You may not find that detail in many biographies of Sir Walter Scott.
You're welcome.
Suitably recharged, we retraced our route back towards Melrose.
Meg discovered fairly quickly that the River Tweed was available for swimming.
Several times.
It's a beautiful, clean-looking stretch of water with plenty of places where a hot dog can paddle in for a quick cool-down.
Unfortunately, Meg doesn't really understand the phrase quick cool-down.
Nor does she understand that a fisherman quietly working a pool on the Tweed may not necessarily regard the sudden arrival of a dripping Border Collie as helpful.
We moved on.
Possibly slightly faster than before.
Lunch in the Garden
Back in Melrose we headed for Burt's Hotel and found ourselves a table outside in the garden.
By now both dogs were finished.
They disappeared beneath the table into the cool shade, barely moving except for the occasional hopeful opening of one eye whenever food arrived.
We ordered drinks.
Then lunch.
A light lunch.
At least that was the plan.
There is, however, a point during a light lunch when somebody says:
“Are we having pudding?”
And everybody knows perfectly well that the correct answer is yes.
Which brings us to the sticky toffee pudding.
Oh my.
We've eaten a few sticky toffee puddings on our travels. Purely for research purposes, obviously.
This may have been the best yet.
Warm, beautifully light sponge, rich toffee sauce and vanilla ice cream slowly melting into it.
Completely inappropriate on a warm late-summer afternoon.
Completely impossible to regret.
And really, that was the day.
Nothing dramatic.
No itinerary to conquer.
No great summit reached.
Just a beautiful walk beside the Tweed, dogs splashing in the river, coffee overlooking Abbotsford and a couple of lazy hours sitting in a hotel garden catching up with old friends.
Eventually we said our goodbyes until next time and pointed the car south again.
Back across the border.
No cattle stolen.
No villages raided.
One Border Collie possibly wanted by several fishermen.
And a sticky toffee pudding we'd happily cross into Scotland for again.
One for another day…
We only really used Abbotsford as the rather magnificent halfway point for our walk.
The house itself, its gardens and Sir Walter Scott's extraordinary collections deserve considerably more time than we gave them.
So I suspect we'll be back.
Preferably when sticky toffee pudding is still on the menu.
Lucy x