Gardens of the Scottish Borders Tour
Aug 30 – Sept 5, 2026
You are invited to join The National Trust for Scotland Foundation USA for six nights in Scotland to explore the Scottish Borders — an area of great scenic beauty with high hills, rivers and fertile lowlands steeped in history. This five-day tour will encompass visits to a selection of interesting and very different gardens as well as historic houses with outstanding collections of art.
Abbotsford
After an arrival night in Edinburgh at the Kimpton Charlotte Square Hotel, we will head to the Borders for four nights at Burts Hotel in the attractive small Borders town of Melrose. We will end our tour with a final night back in Edinburgh at the Kimpton Charlotte Square, where we will celebrate with a farewell dinner.
Among highlights:
- Newhailes, a Trust property just outside of Edinburgh, where we will meet with the design team working on a new garden planned for the Trust’s centenary in 2031
- Floors Castle, home of the Duke and Duchess of Roxburghe, where we will tour State Rooms and visit a spectacular walled garden with a marvelous Victorian vegetable garden, as well as a millennium garden, featuring intertwining initials of the 10th Duke and Duchess, a tapestry and shady garden
- Cherrytrees, a traditional country house garden set in the midst of the Border hills, which has been tended and renovated by the current owners over the last 15 years to spectacular effect — a walled garden with interesting borders, excellent plantings outside the walls, a large Victorian conservatory, and an attractive woodland walk
- Mertoun, home of the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, which is an example of gardening on a large scale – a massive walled garden, superb trees in the woodland walk, and formal borders in front of the house
- Carolside, a traditional and romantic garden set in a beautiful 18th-century landscape, considered to be one of the finest private gardens in Scotland and particularly well known for its historically important collection of roses