High on the ruined abbey at the centre of Melrose there is a gargoyle carved as a pig playing the bagpipes. It has been up there since the fourteenth century, when Cistercian masons apparently had a spare afternoon. The abbey itself is pink sandstone, roofless, and scheduled by Historic Environment Scotland, and it sits in the middle of the town rather than off to one side, so you tend to arrive facing it.
The three volcanic humps behind it are the Eildon Hills. They rise 422 metres over the Tweed valley, and Sir Walter Scott, who could see them from his house at Abbotsford a couple of miles west, called them his "delectable mountains." A steep half-day circuit takes in all three peaks and the views back over the river.
The town underneath is still mostly its own shops. Locals sum it up as "a butcher, a baker and candlestick maker," which undersells it slightly. Martin Baird does the meat and is the place to go for ham. Purple Plum and W & A Williamson handle the fruit and veg, W.F. Anderson brings in fresh fish daily, and Country Kitchen the deli has a serious cheese counter. Abbey Fine Wines covers wine from around the world and Scottish whisky. Twelve Triangles, an Edinburgh bakery, opened its second branch on the market square.
For a drink, the Ship Inn on Eastport is the town's local, dog-friendly to the point of water and treats at the bar, with an award-winning enclosed beer garden that comes with heaters. One TripAdvisor reviewer went with "By far the best pub in Melrose!" Burts Hotel, on the market square, is the smarter option: the Henderson family have run it for over fifty years, the restaurant has held two AA Rosettes every year since 1995, and the bar keeps over fifty single malts. The kitchen runs from a twice-baked cheese soufflé and spiced tiger prawns to Highland venison and rump of Border lamb.
Rugby sevens was invented here. On 28 April 1883, Ned Haig, a local butcher who played for Melrose RFC, proposed a seven-a-side short-match tournament to raise money for the club. Eight teams turned up. The game spread worldwide, and the Rugby Sevens World Cup trophy is called the Melrose Cup. The Greenyards still hosts the Melrose Sevens on the second Saturday in April.
The abbey holds the embalmed heart of Robert the Bruce, buried under a memorial stone after being found in a lead casket in 1921 and reburied on 22 June 1998. His body went to Dunfermline; only the heart came here.
St Cuthbert's Way starts at the abbey and runs all the way to Holy Island off the Northumberland coast. Shorter riverside walks follow the Tweed east to Old Melrose, the bare peninsula where a sixth-century monastery stood before the town existed.
Trains run to Edinburgh Waverley from Tweedbank, just over a mile west; the town sits off the A6091. The old Melrose station, a Jacobean building with Dutch gables, closed in 1969 and was rescued by an architect who turned it into a restaurant and workshops. The abbey emblem, meanwhile, is a mason's mell and a rose: the town's name, spelled out in stone.