Duns
Contents |
Duns
Introduction | Travelling| Peebles | Biggar | Tweed Valley | Melrose | Selkirk | Jedburgh | Hawick | Kelso | Coldstream | Duns | Eyemouth | St Abbs Head | Berwick upon Tweed
===Introduction to Duns=== Phone code: +44 (0)1361
The quiet market town of Duns lies in the middle of Berwickshire, surrounded by the fertile farmland of the Merse. Duns is best known as the birthplace of Jim Clark (1936-68), a former farmer who went on to become world motor racing champion twice in the 1960s and who remains one of Britain's greatest ever racing drivers. His successful career was tragically cut short when he was killed in a crash while practising at Hockenheim in Germany. The Jim Clark Room, 44 Newton Street, is a museum dedicated to his life.
Info: Apr-Sep Mon-Sat 1000-1300 and 1400-1630, Sun 1400-1600; Oct Mon-Sat 1300-1600. £1.30, child free. Tel 883960. There are some good local walks, detailed in the leaflet Walks Around Duns. The best walk is to the top of Duns Law (714 ft), from where there are terrific views of the Merse and the Lammermuir Hills to the north. Also at the top is the Covenanter's Stone, which marks the spot where the Covenanting army camped in 1639, awaiting the arrival of Charles I's troops.
Sleeping and eating in Duns
The best place to stay, if you can afford it, is the B Chirnside Hall Hotel, Tel 818219, Fax 818231, www.chirnsidehallhotel.com, a mile east of Chirnside on the road to Berwick. This Victorian mansion house offers luxurious accommodation and excellent food all day at mid-range prices (booking essential). A cheaper alternative is D Wellfield House , Preston Rd, Tel 883189, www.wellfieldhouse.com, a traditional Georgian house offering great value (no smoking). Also recommended is the non-smoking D-E St Albans, Tel 883285, www.scottishbordersbandb.co.uk, on Clouds, a lane behind the police station. The best place to eat in the area is the award-winning Wheatsheaf at Swinton in the village of Swinton, about 5 miles south of Duns on the A6112, Tel 860257, www.wheatsheaf-swinton.co.uk The food is 1st-class but expensive. Open Tue-Sun 1200-1400, Tue-Sat 1800-2100. Alternatively, you can get cheap bar meals at the Whip and Saddle , on Market Sq, Tel 883215.
Self Catering Cottages in Duns
- Carriage Mews Sleeps 5
Not such a Dunce
Duns was also the birthplace of John Duns Scotus (1266 -1308), a medieval scholar and theologian of some note, who taught at the universities of Oxford and Paris. He opposed the orthodox views of Thomas Aquinas and his teachings divided the Franciscans and Dominicans. After his death his ideas quickly fell out of favour and those who held them were derided as being stupid, and so we have the word "dunce" derived from the heterodox views of John Duns Scotus.
Around Duns
Duns lies only a few miles south of the Lammermuir Hills, a low-lying range running east to west and acting as a natural boundary between the Borders and East Lothian. The hills are criss-crossed by numerous paths and ancient droving trails, including the easterly section of the Southern Upland Way from Lauder, on the A68, to Cockburnspath by the A1 on the coast. You can walk the final 10 miles of the route, starting from the hamlet of Abbey St Bathans, northwest of Duns on the Whiteadder Water.
Two miles east of Duns, on the A6015, is Manderston House, described as the finest Edwardian country house in Scotland. No expense has been spared in the design and decoration and the whole effect, from the silver staircase to the inlaid marble floor in the hall, is one of quite staggering opulence. Take a good look at the staircase - it had tarnished badly over the years (one panel is left to show how black it was) and was voluntarily and lovingly cleaned up by a retired couple. The 56 acres of beautiful gardens should not be missed. There are wonderful displays of rhododendrons late in May.
Info: Mid-May to Sep Thu and Sun 1400-1700. £6.50 (£3 concession) house and gardens, £3.30 (£1.50 concession) gardens only. Tel 01361-883450, Manderston
Twelve miles east of Duns, and five miles west of Berwick-upon-Tweed off the B6461 to Swinton, is Paxton House, a grand neoclassical mansion designed by John and James Adam, the less-famous brothers of Robert, for Patrick Home,who had fallen in love with a Prussian aristocrat at the court of Frederick the Great. She was a great favourite of Frederick's and he strongly opposed the marriage, which never went ahead. She and Patrick corresponded for years and vowed never to marry anyone else while the other was alive. Both kept their promise. Inside there's an impressive display of Chippendale and Regency furniture, and the Picture Gallery is an outstation of the National Gallery of Scotland. In the 80 acres of grounds beside the River Tweed is a Victorian boathouse and a salmon-fishing museum. Info: House open Easter-Oct daily 1115-1700 (1615 last tour). £5, £4.75 concession. Grounds open Apr-Oct 1000 till sunset.