Selkirk
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Just south of the River Tweed, some five miles southwest of Melrose, lies the royal burgh of SELKIRK. The old town sits high up above Ettrick Water; down in the valley by the riverside, the town's imposing greystone woollen mills are mostly boarded up now, an eerie reminder of a once prosperous era. There's precious little reason to linger in Selkirk itself, though the town sits on the edge of some lovely countryside, and serves as the gateway to the picturesque, sparsely populated valleys of Yarrow Water and Ettrick Water, to the west.
At the centre of Selkirk, at one end of the High Street, you'll find the tiny Market Square, overlooked by a statue of Sir Walter Scott, behind which stands the former Town House, now dubbed Sir Walter Scott's Courtroom (April-Sept Mon-Sat 10am-4pm; July & Aug also Sun 2-4pm; Oct-March Mon-Sat 1-4pm; free), where he served as sheriff for 33 years. At the other end of the High Street is a rather more unusual statue of Mungo Park, the renowned explorer and anti-slavery advocate, born in the county in 1771. Just off Market Square to the south is Halliwell's House Museum (April-Oct Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 2-4pm; July & Aug Sun until 6pm; free), an old-style hardware shop and an informative exhibit on the industrialization of the Tweed Valley. Down by the river at the junction of the A7 with the B7014, Selkirk Glass (Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 11am-5pm; free) is a thriving craft industry that stands in stark contrast to the neighbouring mills. Visitors arrive by the coachload to sit in the café and watch glass-blowers making intricate paperweights and the like.
The tourist office (same hours as Halliwell's House; tel 01750/720054) is in Halliwell's House off Market Square, and can help with accommodation. First choice for those with an unlimited budget is the upmarket Philipburn House Hotel (tel 01750/720747, www.philipburnhousehotel.co.uk; £90-110), an unusual eighteenth-century house set in its own grounds a mile west of the town centre; the hotel offers expensive, but excellent Scottish cuisine. More modest in price, but still full of character is the Heatherlie House Hotel (tel 01750/721200, www.heatherlie.freeserve.co.uk; £60-70), a Victorian mansion a sharp left turn up from the road to Ettrick at Heatherlie Park.
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