Dryburgh Abbey

📌 Dryburgh, Scottish Borders
★★★

Dryburgh Abbey offers the most tranquil setting of the four great Borders Abbeys, occupying the swan’s neck of a large meander in the beautiful River Tweed opposite St Boswells. Founded in 1150, the church was the main house of the French order of Premonstratensian canons, but generally offered a quiet life ideal for the resident monks up until the Reformation, despite suffering four attacks over the centuries by English armies. The abbey’s church is constructed partly from attractive pink sandstone; the presbytery is particularly impressive, but many other sections are razed to the ground. Instead – and unusually – the best preserved parts of the abbey are the extensive domestic quarters, including a chapter house with painted walls, plus dormitories, cloisters and warming house. The famous writer Sir Walter Scott is buried here.