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Scottish Borders

The Scottish Borders is a region in south-east adjoining the border with England. That made medieval Scottish kings keen to embellish it, and they created four magnificent abbeys here.
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scotborders.gov.uk
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Photo: Richard Webb, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Photo: Andrew Bowden, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Essential Destinations

Top destinations include Jedburgh and Melrose.

Photo: AlasdairW, CC BY-SA 4.0.
is a town in the Scottish Borders, ten miles north of the border with England. It's best known for its ruined abbey, while the countryside around is dotted with turrets and towerhouses from the medieval days of banditry.

Photo: LeCardinal, CC BY 3.0.
is a town in the Borders Region of southern , with a population of 2,510 in 2016. It's nowadays a commuter town for Edinburgh, and service town for the Borders General Hospital.

Photo: Postdlf, CC BY-SA 3.0.
is a town in the Scottish Borders, midway along the historic route from Carlisle to Edinburgh, with a population of 10,630 in 2020. The main reason to come is to explore the hills and forests above the town.

Destinations to Discover

Explore places such as Kelso and Galashiels.

Photo: Meho29, CC BY-SA 3.0.
is a small market town in the Borders region of southern Scotland, with a population of 6900 in 2020. Its name probably derives from Calk Heugh - the "chalk outcrop" which its two rivers cut through.

Photo: John Brewer, CC BY-SA 3.0.
is a town in the Scottish Borders, 33 miles south of Edinburgh. It's a former mill town which is now part of commuterland for the city, and in 2016 had a population of about 12,600.

Photo: AlasdairW, CC BY-SA 3.0.
is a town in the Scottish Borders, with a population in 2020 of 9000. The name is Brythonic: pebyll meant "tents" or a temporary dwelling place.

Photo: Kim Traynor, CC BY-SA 3.0.
is a harbour town in the Scottish Borders. With a population of 3580 in 2022, it's the largest of a string of picturesque fishing villages along the rugged Berwickshire coast. Others, also described here, are Burnmouth, Coldingham and St Abbs.

Photo: Kim Traynor, CC BY-SA 3.0.
is a market town in the Scottish Borders, with a population in 2020 of 4540. Its main trade of textiles has gone, and it's becoming a commuter town for Edinburgh, linked by the re-opened railway through nearby Galashiels.

Photo: Iain Lees, CC BY-SA 2.0.
is a village in the Scottish Borders, best known as the northern terminus of the 268-mile Pennine Way. is the east side of this straggly settlement; the larger part west of the river is Town Yetholm.
Photo: Davidkilpatrick, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Scottish Borders

Latitude of center
55.5833° or 55° 35′ north
Longitude of center
-2.8333° or 2° 50′ west
Population
117,000
Elevation
512 feet (156 metres)
Abbreviation
“SCB”
Open­Street­Map ID
node 302323566
Open­Street­Map feature
place=­county
Geo­Names ID
2655192
Wiki­data ID
Q211113
This page is based on OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikivoyage.
We’d love your help improving our open data sources. Thank you for contributing.

Satellite Map

Discover Scottish Borders from above in high-definition satellite imagery.
© Stadia Maps, Airbus DS, CNES, PlanetObserver, and Copernicus

In Other Languages

From Arabic to Yue Chinese—“Scottish Borders” goes by many names.
  • Arabic: “الحدود الاسكتلندية”
  • Armenian: “Սքոթիշ Բորդերս”
  • Azerbaijani: “Scottiş-Borders”
  • Basque: “Scottish Borders”
  • Belarusian: “Скотыш-Бордэрс”
  • Belarusian: “Скоціш-Бордэрс”
  • Belarusian: “Шатландскія межы”
  • Bengali: “স্কটিশ বর্ডার”
  • Breton: “Scottish Borders”
  • Bulgarian: “Шотландски граници”
  • Catalan: “Scottish Borders”
  • Cebuano: “The Scottish Borders”
  • Chinese: “Scottish Borders”
  • Chinese: “博德斯”
  • Chinese: “苏格兰边区”
  • Chinese: “蘇格蘭邊區”
  • Czech: “Scottish Borders”
  • Danish: “Scottish Borders”
  • Dutch: “Schotse Borders”
  • Dutch: “Scottish Borders”
  • Egyptian Arabic: “سكوتيش بوردرز”
  • Esperanto: “Crìochan na h-Alba”
  • Esperanto: “GB-SCB”
  • Esperanto: “Scottish Borders”
  • Esperanto: “Skotaj Limoj”
  • Esperanto: “The Mairches”
  • Estonian: “Scottish Borders”
  • Fiji Hindi: “Scottish Borders”
  • Finnish: “Scottish Borders”
  • French: “Marches écossaises”
  • French: “Scottish Borders”
  • Galician: “Scottish Borders”
  • Georgian: “სკოტიშ-ბორდერსი”
  • German: “Crìochan na h-Alba”
  • German: “GB-SCB”
  • German: “Scottish Borders”
  • German: “The Mairches”
  • German: “The Scottish Borders”
  • Gujarati: “સ્કોટિશ બોર્ડર્સ”
  • Hebrew: “דרום-מזרח סקוטלנד”
  • Icelandic: “Scottish Borders”
  • Indonesian: “Scottish Borders”
  • Irish: “Comhairle Chrìochan na h-Alba”
  • Irish: “Comhairle nan Crìochan”
  • Italian: “Scottish Borders”
  • Japanese: “スコティッシュ・ボーダーズ”
  • Japanese: “スコティッシュボーダーズ”
  • Japanese: “ボーダー地方”
  • Kannada: “ಸ್ಕಾಟಿಷ್ ಬಾರ್ಡರ್ಸ್”
  • Korean: “스코티쉬 보더스 주”
  • Korean: “스코티쉬 보더스”
  • Korean: “스코티쉬보더스 주”
  • Korean: “스코티쉬보더스”
  • Korean: “스코티시 보더스 주”
  • Korean: “스코티시 보더스”
  • Korean: “스코티시보더스 주”
  • Korean: “스코티시보더스”
  • Lithuanian: “Bordersas”
  • Lithuanian: “Škotų Sienos”
  • Manx: “Creeaghyn ny h-Albey”
  • Min Nan Chinese: “Scottish Borders”
  • Northern Frisian: “Scottish Borders”
  • Norwegian Bokmål: “Scottish Borders”
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: “Dei skotske grensene”
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: “Scottish Borders”
  • Norwegian: “Scottish Borders”
  • Persian: “اسکاتیش بوردرز”
  • Persian: “اسکوتیش بوردرز”
  • Polish: “Granice Szkocji”
  • Polish: “Scottish Borders”
  • Portuguese: “Crìochan na h-Alba”
  • Portuguese: “Scottish Borders”
  • Romanian: “Scottish Borders”
  • Russian: “Скоттиш-Бордерс”
  • Russian: “Шотландские границы”
  • Scots: “Scots Borders”
  • Scots: “The Mairches”
  • Scottish Gaelic: “Crìochan na h-Alba”
  • Scottish Gaelic: “sgìre Comhairle Chrìochan na h-Alba”
  • Serbo-Croatian: “Scottish Borders”
  • Slovenian: “Scottish Borders”
  • Spanish: “Borders”
  • Spanish: “Scottish Borders”
  • Swedish: “Borders”
  • Swedish: “Scottish Borders”
  • Tagalog: “Scottish Borders”
  • Tamil: “ஸ்காட்டிஷ் பார்டர்ஸ்”
  • Telugu: “స్కాటిష్ బార్దర్స్”
  • Turkish: “Scottish Borders”
  • Ukrainian: “Скоттіш-Бордерс”
  • Urdu: “سکاٹش بارڈرز”
  • Welsh: “Gororau’r Alban”
  • Western Panjabi: “سکاٹش بارڈرز”
  • Yue Chinese: “蘇格蘭邊區”
  • “Crìochan na h-Alba”
  • “GB-SCB”
  • “Scottish Borders”
  • “The Mairches”

Scotland: Must-Visit Destinations

Delve into Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Dundee.

Explore These Curated Destinations

Discover places selected for their distinct character and enduring appeal.
About Mapcarta. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors and available under the Open Database License". Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, except for photos, directions, and the map. Description text is based on the Wikivoyage page “Scottish Borders”. Photo: Andrew Bowden, CC BY-SA 2.0.