We love to go to Scotland and we spend a lot of time in the Scottish borders area, this time we stayed at the Dryburgh Abbey hotel near St Boswells. The Dryburgh Abbey Hotel is directly next door to the Original Dryburgh Abbey and is on the river Tweed and is in a perfect Scottish setting nestled in the hills.

The hotel is set in some lovely grounds overlooking the river. This is our second stay at the hotel purely because we enjoyed it so much the first time so we decided to give it another go !! The first thing you notice apart from the beautiful Tweed river is they have a disability ramp up to the hotel. ( I thought this was fab) especially for the elderly or infirm or those that want to take their suitcases in this way rather than up the stairs. very thoughtful !!

The Hotel is very popular with people who like outdoor and rural type pursuits with salmon fishing on the tweed river etc. We did see some gentlemen fly fishing in the tweed river but the pictures didn’t come out very well so I couldn’t post one here drats !!

The rooms are large and the beds very comfortable. Each room has coffee-making facilities, an iron and ironing board, a hair dryer that didn’t work after a while ( my partner fixed this by brushing out the dust that had accumulated in the filter at the back of the dryer, he is a genius I would never of thought of it !!!) it had obviously gotten very hot and it just overheated and stopped. The rooms also have wifi so no need to go to a lounge or reception to google !! There is a trouser press which we never use but is great I expect for the business traveller.

 

We had dinner and breakfast included with our break and on the first night we ate at the bistro. The waiting/serving staff where great, especially Caitlin who was bubbly and she was very entertaining. Ian Gammy was superb and has all the refinement of a gentleman and it reminded me of the programme upstairs down stairs with all the english gentry. We remembered him from our visit the last time and he was very attentive and extremely polite, and well read on Scottish whiskies. To top them all was Dom, the french food and beverage manager who was always running around organizing everything and he was very personable and friendly.

On our first night I had the haggies, neeps and tatties to start scrummy and then wild mushroom crumble with salad equally yummy. My partner had the lamb fillet with potatoes and tomato concasse.

On the second night I had haggies neeps and tatties to start followed by beef steak pie and banana crepes. We brought the wine downstairs to the lounge area and had cheese and biscuits, wow was I  full as a googy egg !!

My partners Lamb fillet below, the picture does not do it justice !!!

Cheese board and wine relaxing in the lounge area mmmmmmhhh !!!!

The pool was a nice treat and we did have a swim, the best bit was we had the pool and spa to ourselves.

There is said to be a ghost in the hotel and the story goes that one of the Monks from the adjacent Abbey formed a friendship with a lady of the house, when the Abbot found out he ordered the killing of the Monk immediately. When the lady learned of this she threw herself into the river and drowned. She is now known as ‘ The Grey Lady’ there have been sightings of her in the out buildings of the house and also the chain bridge. The story goes that she is only active when she is displeased with something going on, such as builders working on the building in 1991.

We only had one misgiving and this was that the pillows were not the best, we did ask at reception and where told they only had feather pillows, a bit perplexed I went to have a look and I am still trying to find a duck or other bird with polyester feathers ha ha !!

All in all though this is a fab hotel, set in a great area with superb attentive and friendly staff. This is a Rave !!!!