Scotland Day Two: Kelso

Fred with Cousin Ken and his lovely wife Pat, outside their home in Kelso

We started the day with a delicious full Scottish breakfast at our B&B in Ayr, then set out for Kelso along narrow, winding roads. The weather today is just wonderful (did I mention that it rained yesterday?), and the scenery on the drive was beautiful.

In Kelso, we visited Fred's cousin Ken and his wife Pat. They're lovely, and we enjoyed their company very much. It was only going to be a brief visit for tea, but their schedule had opened up, and we spent the afternoon together, seeing the local sights and enjoying the sunshine.

The Kelsae Stane

First, Ken and Pat treated us to a tasty lunch in Kelso, and showed us the cobblestone town square, and the Kelsae Stane -- a giant cobblestone-shaped piece of public art. The actual stone is a 33-tonne piece of basalt that came from India. Place names were hand-written by local people, then engraved on the stone. The hand-written place names were provided by people of all ages, ranging from someone who had only just started writing, to a 101-year-old.

The Kelsae Stane was carved by local sculptor Jake Harvey, Emeritus Professor of sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art, and the piece was unveiled in 2014.

After lunch, we drove to the Roxburgh Cemetery to see the headstone of Fred's mother's great-grandparents, Charles and Marion Hendry. Charles was the stationmaster at Roxburgh Station for many years. Beside that headstone was another for Charles's daughter Annie Moonlight Dagg and her husband Thomas Dagg, who was the stationmaster at nearby Maxton.

Next, we visited Jedburgh Abbey, a ruined Augustinian abbey that was founded in the 1100s and built over a period of 120 years. It's a mix of Romanesque and Gothic architectural styles, and it's huge.

Ken pointed out Jedburgh Castle and Jail, but we didn't stop. As well, we drove past the old station house, but the trees had grown up since Fred last saw it, and we weren't able to get a peek.

After saying our goodbyes, we checked in to the Duncan House B&B. We were shown to a lovely little room that would have been perfectly adequate, but then our host Kate decided to upgrade us to a larger space. And what a space! Canopy bed, enormous armoire, two big windows overlooking the River Teviot (and a telescope on a tripod to help us enjoy the view), and one looking out towards the 180-foot spire of the gothic Kelso North Parish Church, which was built in 1866, and probably still has that new church smell.

River Teviot, seen from our window at Duncan House B&B