History and a whole lot more
The historic royal burgh of Jedburgh is known as the gateway to the Borders and is home to one of the region's four great abbeys.
There is nothing like a great ruin for visitor appeal and Jedburgh Abbey ranks alongside the best of them providing a breathtaking welcome for those arriving in the town from the south.
Built in 1138 with the support of David 1 to designs that were inspired by Europe's finest churches, Jedburgh Abbey was home to an Augustinian order of monks and served the royal castle located in the town.
As the gateway to the Borders and greater Scotland, Jedburgh bore the brunt of many unwelcome visits from invading English armies. During incursions made in the 1540's Jedburgh was reduced to ruins by Henry the Eighth's armies, a victim of power politics and the monarch's acute displeasure that the Scots would not ratify the betrothal of the infant Mary Queen of Scots to his son Edward, then at the tender age of seven.
Mary Queen of Scots was later to become permanently linked to the town when she took up residence for a while, using her time to preside at local courts and visit her lover the Earl of Bothwell at Hermitage Castle. The house where she stayed in Queen Street is now a museum.
A short walk from the Abbey is Jeburgh Castle and Jail, built in 1820 on the site of a motte and bailey from the middle ages, and an important example of Howard Reform Prison architecture.
Displays explore its development and what it would have been like to be a prisoner and a guard.
On a wall in the British Legion Club in Jedburgh High Street, neatly positioned between two Victoria Cross memorials, sits a third commemorative display, this one containing a George Cross.
It is no exaggeration to say that the remarkable story attached to the George Cross, awarded posthumously to First Lieutenant Tony Fasson RN, changed the course of the Second World War. (The full story can be found in Discover the Borders Jedburgh section).
Take a walk through Lothian Park, south along the A68, and you will arrive at Inchbonny and a phenomenon known as ‘Hutton's Unconformity' - a geological formation of horizontal bands of red sandstone. It enabled farmer and doctor James Hutton of Duns to produce his ‘Theory of the Earth', a work that earned him the title of the "founding father" of modern geology.
But there is a lot more to this bonny and friendly border town, with its pleasant winding streets and speciality shops (check out the Jedburgh Chocolate House), than history.
Set amid spectacular countryside there plenty for those looking for outdoor pursuits such as walking, riding and golfing.
