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8 Best Sightseeing Attractions In Scottish Borders
Follow the Tweed and you have essentially seen the Borders sightseeing list. The river runs west to east across the region, the good farmland and the old money went with it, and the historic houses sit along that line: Abbotsford, Traquair House, Bowhill House and County Estate and Manderston. Jedburgh Castle Jail and Museum and Mary Queen Of Scots Visitor Centre add the town-based history in the south, and Gunsgreen House breaks the pattern by standing at the coast on the harbour at Eyemouth. Eight entries in total, which is not many for a region of this scale, and most of them are marked as principally indoor.
Top sightseeing attractions in Scottish Borders
Showing 1–8 of 8
SightseeingBowhill House and County Estate
SightseeingGunsgreen House
SightseeingMary Queen Of Scots Visitor Centre
SightseeingAbbotsford
SightseeingJedburgh Castle Jail and Museum
SightseeingManderston
SightseeingTraquair House
AdventurePeebles Spy Mission Treasure Trail
This is a category that rewards older children and tests younger ones. Rooms, portraits and period furniture ask for a kind of patience that a five-year-old does not have, and the Borders houses are strung out rather than clustered, so a wasted visit costs you the travel as well. Where a house has grounds — Bowhill House and County Estate, Traquair House and Manderston are all flagged with outdoor space as well as rooms — the day gets much easier, because the children can be let loose between the indoor bits.
Sightseeing Attractions in Scottish Borders: FAQs
Eight entries for the whole Borders — is that really it?
For this category, broadly yes, and it reflects the region itself rather than a shortfall in the listing. The Borders is thinly populated, its towns are small, and its visitor economy is built on landscape, walking and the river more than on attractions with a ticket desk. The eight here are genuinely the substantial sightseeing stops, and several of them are grand houses of a similar type.
Which one would you choose with primary-age children?
One with grounds attached, so the visit is not only rooms. Traquair House and Bowhill House and County Estate are both marked as having outdoor as well as indoor space, which gives you somewhere to release energy between looking at things. Peebles Spy Mission Treasure Trail is the other approach entirely: a self-guided route round a town, done at your own pace.
Does the coast offer anything different?
A little. Gunsgreen House stands at Eyemouth harbour and its story is bound up with the sea and with smuggling, which gives it a hook the inland houses do not have. It is the only entry in this listing sitting on the coast, so if you are staying on that side of the region it saves a long inland journey for the sake of a single visit.
What happens to this category in bad weather?
It holds up better than most. Seven of the eight are marked as at least partly under cover, so a wet day here is an argument for a house rather than against a day out. The exception is the walking trail, which needs reasonable conditions. When the forecast turns, the choice narrows sensibly rather than collapsing, which is not true of the region's outdoor draws.