Daytrip-Scottish Borders
 

I'm in the early stages of planning our Scotland trip (we'll be there late March/early April). We are arriving Edinburgh mid day on a Thurs., planning on spending the rest of Thurs. and all day Friday in Edi. Trying to make a plan for day trip to Borders for Saturday. Here's what I've got--along with varied driving time from 2 different sites:<BR><BR>Edi. to Tantallon castle (arrive 9:30) on to Alnwick -approx drive time 1.5-1.75 hours.<BR>over to Melrose Abbey-approx drive time 1.5 hours- (here I cut out Jedburgh abbey, dryburgh abbey and Traquair house)--up to Crichton castle (they don't close until 6:30) and back to Edi for supper and ale. <BR>Any thoughts on this? Are the drive times correct? <BR>Also, for a total of 11.5 days in Scotland-should we add another day for Edi at the end of our trip? I'm leaning toward that. Thanks for any input!

Ani: You will never have time to visit Tantallon, Alnwick, Melrose and Chichton. Plus you will be passing up some of the best things on your route - Direlton Castle, St Abbs Head, Holy Island, Dryburgh, Jedburgh and Traquair.<BR><BR>Each place takes a minimum of 45 minutes to even skim the surface. When you add in walking from the car park, buying ticket (or showing Heritage Pass), etc, count on a minimum of 1 hour per site. From Edinburgh to Alnwick is a little over 100 miles so count on 2 to 2.5 hours just to drive there w/o visiting anything. Plus the detour through Melrose and Chrichton would be probably 2.5 hours minimum (less for locals but Americans are lucky if they average 40 miles per hour off the motorways).<BR><BR>Either pland on doing an overnight in the borders or cut way back on your distances.<BR><BR>A good two day loop would be Edinburgh &gt; Direlton &gt; Tantallon &gt; St Abbs head. Overnight in Duns, Kelso, or Melrose. Second day see Melrose, Dryburgh, Traquair and Chrichton (but even that is pretty ambitious)<BR><BR>

Janis-i'm unclear if you think we should take Alnwick out of our trip altogether (even a 2 day-er)...and if you forgot to include it in your 2 day plan-perhaps we SHOULD take it out-it seems to be the one most time consuming part of that trip...

I left Alnwick out on purpose. It is a lovely place but is the odd man out on your itinerary. If you do a two day option, you will still be hard pressed to make it to every place I listed. I also omitted Jedburgh because Melrose / Dryburgh is an easy combo being so near each other.<BR><BR>You mentioned Melrose - well Dryburgh is practically next door and is in an even lovlier location. And then Scott's View is right there. The Melrose/Scott's View/Dryburgh loop will take you about 90 mins to 2 hours. Traquairs takes an hour or more, Tantallon takes about an hour - as does Dirleton. <BR><BR>If you do want an overnight in the Borders a FANTASTIC B&B is Wellfield House in Duns. It is the finest B&B I have seen for the price (I have stayed in more than 10 UK B&Bs over the years). http://www.wellfieldhouse.com/<BR>They charge only &pound;25 to &pound;30 pp for VERY large, elegant rooms w/ jacuzzi tubs, balconies looking over the grounds, and a grand piano in the double fronted, Adam decorated main room. Plus billiards, etc. This is a really SPECIAL place

On Holy Island, do the monks there really make visitors clean the beach?

Thanks Janis!! ACtually Alnwick isn't open until April 1 (we were planning on going March 29)-so that may work out. And thanks for the B&B recommm. I will look them up-are they a historic building by any chance?? Now i'm just trying to figure out if we should save the borders detour for the end of our trip.

Janis again...just looked up the website-GORGEOUS!! Where is Duns in comparison to the Melrose area?

Duns is north east of Kelso. it is due west of Brewick on Tweed. It is about 25 miles NE of Melrose. if you do the eastern side (Dirleton, Tantallon, St Abbs Head the first day DUNS is the perfect stopping off place. Then the next day you can drive on to Dryburgh, Melrose, traquair and back north towards Chrichton/Edinburgh.<BR><BR>Wellfield house sometimes has a two or three night minimum - but in March that would not be a problem<BR><BR>All of the rooms are fabulous - but ask for the one with the huge bathroom w/ separate stall shower and HUGE jacuzzi. The bedroomroom is lovely with a chaise lounge, lots of closets (!) and a circular balcony.