Quote Originally Posted by cessna152towser View Post
The rolling Southern Uplands are too often overlooked by our visitors from North America. Here in the Scottish Borders and in neighbouring Dumfries and Galloway you can see much surviving history of the borders warfare and the Reivers in the form of many castles, tower houses and fortified farms. The Borders towns all have their own individual character with their annual horseback Common Riding events. Here in Hawick alone we have the House of Cheviot sock factory, Johnston's of Elgin Cashmere Visitor Centre, Hawick Cashmere visitor centre, the award winning Wilton Lodge Park with its spectacular waterfall, the Heritage Hub where you can carry out ancestry research if you have ancestry from Scotland or Northern England, or sip a cool beer or latte on the glass floor over the water wheel of the historic Tower Mill. Hawick markets itself as Scotland's heritage capital and is very popular with European visitors, and also a stopping place for some of the Japanese tourists but strangely is relatively unknown to our North American friends.
Most of the Scottish population lives in the central belt and the Southern Uplands are in places just as sparsely populated as the Highlands. The scenery is more gentle and while the mountains may be less spectacular the ancient castles and abbeys more than compensate for this.
If you do spend time in Edinburgh, you can easily visit the Borders on a day trip using tne new Borders Railway which opened last September and can bring you here in under an hour from the centre of Edinburgh. Don't go all the way to the, hopefully temporary, end of the line at Tweedbank as this is just a residential area and leaves you a forty minute walk or a five minute bus ride short of the tourist town of Melrose with its historic Abbey and walled gardens. Instead alight at Galashiels and take a bus from the transport interchange there. Buses run fast and frequent from Galashielse to Melrose, Kelso, Jedburgh, Selkirk or Hawick. Visit Kelso or Jedburgh abbeys or explore Jedburgh's historic closes (from Jedburgh Castle down to the High School is just like Edinburgh Royal Mile but on a smaller scale and without all the tourist tat). Or explore the Kirk o' the Forest in Selkirk where William Wallace was first appointed Guardian of Scotland and where Franklin D Roosevelt's mother's family are buried, just a one minute walk from the main bus stance in Selkirk Market Place.
Personally I think Edinburgh is a dump and not worth visiting, but like CTBuchanan I have connections with Glasgow so maybe I am biased. Glasgow is worth visiting for its friendly people, its vibrant waterfront, beautiful parks and splendid architecture, especially the People's Palace, Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow University and the Charles Rennie MacIntosh designed Scotland Street school museum.
Glasgow is a good location for visiting the west coast. There are frequent trains to Gourock, Ardrossan, Largs or Ayr and many ferry services on the Firth of Clyde. Visit the islands of Bute and Arran if you have an opportunity. There are a few daily trains to Oban or Fort William and onwards to Mallaig on the West Highland line famous as a location in the Harry Potter films.
If you really do need to visit the outer islands such as Tiree, the Outer Hebrides, Orkneys or Shetlands, best to fly from Glasgow Airport, otherwise you will spend a lot of your time on surface travel.
Thank you, and point conceded about skipping over the Border towns. I did not know about the new rail line. You also bring up a point I had not considered. I had planned on using mostly rail for our travels, and ferries out to the isles, but would flying be more expedient? Here in the states it is a little hard to find flights within the UK to the smaller airports.