Scottish Borders – Things to do Part 1

Scottish Borders – Things to do Part 1

We were recently in Krakow for a short break, and within a couple of weeks of returning from our Polish trip we were off again. This time to somewhere quite different as we had booked accommodation in the Scottish Borders, and we headed north to spend a week base in the small Border town of Kelso.

It was probably colder in the Borders than it was in Poland, but whilst much of the UK seemed to be getting hit by snowy arctic conditions, the part of Scotland we were in, was for the most part snow free.

The weather wasn’t ever going to be an issue for us as, we had gone pretty well prepared. We take the view that there is seldom the wrong weather but you can have the wrong clothes.

Travelling by car meant we could carry more than we needed and we packed a variety of coats hats and gloves,  including a selection that had kept us warm when we were in Berlin , Prague and other places on a European trip a couple of years back, so we were not at all troubled by the prospect of cold weather.

The Scottish Borders

We love Scotland, it’s a country we have visited many times.  In fact the Borders (and neighbouring Northumberland) are areas we are pretty familiar with, having holidayed there several times in recent years.

Scotland really does seem to have something for everybody, we’ve stayed in Nairn (east of Inverness and on the Moray Firth) and we’ve stayed on the west coast a few times s well, and the Borders although different is charming in its own way.

In addition to the trips and holidays we have taken there together, I have travelled extensively on my motorbike pretty much all over Scotland – although there is one stretch of the West Coast I have yet to get to sort of between Ullapool and Inverness.

You can check out a couple of my 2021 motorcycle trips over on my motorcycle blog  at this link and at this one.

Plenty to see and do

The Scottish Borders are made up of the counties of Berwickshire, Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire, and Selkirkshire and the southern fringes of  East Lothian and Midlothian and there really is plenty to do and plenty to see in this part of Scotland.

Prior to our trip we had made a list of things we wanted to do and one of those was to make a visit to the National Museum of Flight in North Berwick.

Fortunately because we had checked in advance, we were aware that at this time of year the museum was only open at weekends which meant if we wanted to visit we would have to make it on our first full day there – the Sunday, and that is exactly what we did.

Visiting the Scottish Borders – National Museum of Flight

In 1971, the Ministry of Defence donated a Supermarine Spitfire to the Royal Museum in Edinburgh.

There wasn’t enough space in the Royal Museum which led in turn to permission being given for one of the hangars ar RAF East Fortune in East Lothian, to be used as a store for aeronautical type. That early beginning led to the development of what was to become the National Museum of Flight.

The museum opened to the public in the summer of  1975.  For much more information use this link to read more about the history of East Fortune Airfield.

We had a superb time there and would recommend without it hesitation if you have any interest at all in that sort of thing. We really do enjoy places like this (another we can recommend is the RAF museum at RAF Cosford in the east midlands).

There are plenty of pictures from the National Museum of Flight in the first of the picture galleries below.

National Museum of Flight – Picture gallery

Clicking on any of the images in the gallery will open clickable/scrollable set of pictures

Visiting the Scottish Borders – Cove Harbour

Cove Harbour  is another decent place to visit.

It’s a small harbour with a small bay and is easy accessible by a pretty well marked and well surfaced path from the car park on the headland above.

It was only about 30 miles or so from the flight museum so it made sense to go there on the same day. We had been there a couple of years back, the sea was much wilder on this occasion which made it quite spectacular at times. Check out the picture gallery below.

Cove Harbour – Picture gallery

Clicking on any of the images in the gallery will open clickable/scrollable set of pictures

Visiting the Scottish Borders – Eyemouth

After a wander at Cove Harbour we drove another 16 miles or so down the coast to Eyemouth, where we enjoyed a stroll along the beach, took some pictures before wandering round to Eyemouth Harbour before eventually heading back to our accommodation in Kelso – all in all it had been a decent way to spend a Sunday. There are plenty of pictures from Eyemouth in the third and final picture gallery below.

Eyemouth – Picture gallery

Clicking on any of the images in the gallery will open clickable/scrollable set of pictures

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You can read Part 2 at this link.

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