www.edinburgh.org

Tourist board website for Edinburgh

www.borderstouristboard.com

Tourist Board website for the Borders

www.visiteastlothian.org

Excellent information  on East Lothian

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, a magnificent city where the Castle dominates the town, but there are many more visitor attractions worth a visit – the National Museum of Scotland, Dynamic Earth, Gladstone’s Land, the Museum of Childhood and the Royal Botanic Garden. And you don’t need to be based in the city to enjoy its benefits – there are holiday parks on the outskirts or you could make a choice from several in East Lothian. There is a good train service to Edinburgh from North Berwick and Dunbar.

At North Berwick is the Scottish Seabird Centre, where live cameras allow close contact not only with the thousands of seabirds (gannets and puffins) on the Bass Rock, but also with grey seals. Along the coast and especially near Dunbar, there are coastal paths and a choice of sandy beaches.

If castles are the focus of your interest, then check out Historic Scotland’s Tantallon Castle perched on the cliff-top near North Berwick or Dirleton Castle and Garden and, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Newhailes (NTS), an outstanding example of an 18th/19th century grand manor, where much of the original furnishings have been preserved.

The Museum of Flight at East Fortune is Scotland’s national aviation museum, with an eclectic collection of flying machines, including a Concorde.

Golfers also find this area one of the most appealing in Scotland, with both links and parkland courses, including Muirfield and Gullane, and, whilst it may be impossible for you to get a tee-off time on the former, Gullane and several other courses in the area do welcome visitors.

Just over the border from England, close to Berwick-upon-Tweed, is Paxton House – an historic house, gardens, woods and walks along the River Tweed. On the coast lies Eyemouth, the scene, over a hundred years ago, of a huge storm in which almost all the fishermen of the village lost their lives.

The Borders stretches from the east coast right across to the M74 and takes in wild moorland and remote castles, such as Hermitage, near Newcastleton. Other castles and historic houses are perhaps easier to reach – Manderston, near Duns; Floors Castle, just outside Kelso; Abbotsford on the banks of the River Tweed, once home of Sir Walter Scott; and Traquair, a few miles from Peebles – visited by 27 Scottish monarchs, it has a maze and its own brewery.

The Borders’ gardens are also worth visiting; make sure you include Kailzie on your trip, as well as Dawyck Botanic Garden, and Priorwood Garden in Melrose, which has a range of traditional apple trees. In the 12th century, King David I of Scotland, founded several abbeys and eight hundred years later, although now magnificent ruins, they can still be seen – in Kelso, Dryburgh, Jedburgh and Melrose, where the heart of Robert the Bruce lies buried in a special casket.

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View the Thistle Holiday Parks in Edinburgh, the Lothians & the Borders