Dryburgh Steading One

The freshly-renovated Dryburgh Steadings are four holiday homes set around an attractive courtyard, with the development attractively flanked by gardens and dry-stone walls. Featuring rustic exteriors of restored pink sandstone and pistachio-painted weatherboarding, their hamlet sits at the end of a no-through lane in a tranquil spot beside the River Tweed’s banks. Visible beyond are the three conical Eildon Hills.

Sleeping between four and six guests and containing two or three bathrooms, each Steading property shares the same high-end finishes and sleek contemporary design while possessing its own distinct charm and benefits. All enjoy access to a large, lawned communal area..

Steading One sleeps four in two large upstairs bedrooms, each with Velux windows and generous bathrooms. The home’s ground floor provides a cosy snug and an open-plan kitchen, dining and living area. This connects to a patio beside an enclosed, private garden, which runs the length of the house and has comfy outdoor furniture and a gas barbecue.

You’ll enjoy quality kitchen equipment, luxurious bed linen and towels, indulgent waffle bathrobes, flatscreen televisions, and a generous welcome hamper of goodies. Dogs are very welcome, and an outdoor pipe helps to hose them down after muddy walks.

Interrupting that rear garden’s low stone wall, a path leads down to both the river – look out for statuesque herons ready to pounce on fish – and the ancient Temple of Muses, a Greek-style structure dedicated to local, Rule, Britannia!-writing poet and playwright James Thomson.

Just below that Temple of the Muses begins the pretty, pedestrian-only Dryburgh Suspension Bridge – erected in 1872 to replace Britain’s first ever chain bridge. This safely transports walkers across the meandering Tweed towards the village of St. Boswells and its award-winning Mainstreet Trading Company’s bookshop-cum-café. Remain on the river’s east side and a five-minute stroll will take you up to ruined Dryburgh Abbey, the monumental resting place of Sir Walter Scott, while a colossal William Wallace statue looms over mature trees from a neighbouring hillside.

Other local highlights include baronial Dryburgh Abbey Hotel for evening drinks, picturesque Leaderfoot Viaduct, what remains of Trimontium – once the largest Roman fort north of Hadrian’s Wall – Scott’s eclectic home at Abbotsford and Scott’s View, one of the novelist’s most beloved look-outs. Eight miles away, the beguiling market town of Melrose has great shops and restaurants, and another of the four great Border abbeys.

ADDITIONAL ACCOMMODATION

For guests looking to holiday together, this cottage can be booked alongside Dryburgh Steading Two (sleeping 4), Dryburgh Steading Three (sleeping 6), Dryburgh Steading Four (sleeping 4), The Bothy at Dryburgh (sleeping 2), Dryburgh Stirling One (sleeping 4), Dryburgh Stirling Two (sleeping 4) or Dryburgh Farmhouse (sleeping 10).