Romantic Scotland

Today is sis’s birthday so had to come up with a surprise for her. She wanted to visit castles but none within east travelling distance. Melrose Abbey and Jedburgh both within east travelling distance but we have visited both before. Then I looked up houses etc and Abbotsford House came up as just a 29 minute drive away.
Couldn’t keep it a total secret because SatNav knew where I was going but was a well received birthday present.

Abbotsford was the home of Sir Walter Scott the famous Scots author. What an amazing place it is too. To avoid it being sold to pay liability debts he put it in trust and so it is pretty much as he left it albeit carefully curated. The library (which sis is going to blip) was just stunning and all the books are his. Because it wasn’t an ‘ancestral home’ there aren’t books from generations - they are all his and places on the shelves where he put them. I found that quite moving for some reason.

This is taken looking back from the walled gardens which were also pretty spectacular in the afternoon light. Lots of colour still, with cosmos and rubeckia still going.

Tomorrow we return home. I’ve enjoyed the trip north (I normally do) but will be nice to sleep in my own bed again