Best Places to Visit in Scottish Borders
Written by UK Hidden Gems Editorial
Updated 5 August 2026
The best places to visit in Scottish Borders are Cove Harbour, Hermitage Castle, Wolfcleuch Waterfall, St Abb's Head, Fast Castle, Stichill Linn, Greenends Gully and Bilsdean Waterfall.
The Scottish Borders run a rugged coast and empty moor country down to the English line, rich in castles, cliffs and hidden falls. On the Berwickshire coast, the seabird cliffs of St Abb's Head crowd with guillemots and kittiwakes, the smuggling harbour at Cove is reached through a hand-cut tunnel, and the scant ruin of Fast Castle clings to its rocky spit near Coldingham.
Inland stands the grim, gaunt stronghold of Hermitage Castle alone on the moors of Liddesdale, where Mary, Queen of Scots once rode to visit Bothwell. Water drops in wooded ravines at Stichill Linn near Kelso and Wolfcleuch in Craik Forest, and the coast offers the diving inlet of Greenends Gully near Eyemouth and the little fall at Bilsdean above its arched shore.
Some are grand set pieces, others quiet corners. Here are eight places to visit across the Scottish Borders.
Cove Harbour
Photo: Brian Turner via Geograph.org.uk
Cove Harbour is a small, old harbour tucked below red sandstone cliffs on the Berwickshire coast, near Cockburnspath. It is reached through a tunnel cut by hand through the cliff, which opens onto the beach and the inner harbour.
Chambers off the tunnel were once used to store fish and, by repute, smuggled goods. A few creel boats still work from the harbour, and the cottages and pier sit part-carved from the natural rock.
Hermitage Castle
Photo: Maigheach-gheal via Geograph.org.uk
Hermitage Castle is a grim, gaunt ruin standing alone on the moors of Liddesdale, near Newcastleton in the Scottish Borders. A great oblong stronghold with towers at its corners, its dark stone walls are spanned high up by tall arches that once carried timber fighting galleries, giving it a forbidding look.
Much of it was built by the Douglases in the 1300s, on the site of an earlier castle. In 1566 Mary, Queen of Scots made a long, hard ride here to visit the wounded Earl of Bothwell.
Historic Environment Scotland keeps the ruin, open in summer.
Wolfcleuch Waterfall
Photo: Karl and Ali via Geograph.org.uk
Wolfcleuch Waterfall is a woodland fall of about twelve metres on the Wolfcleuch Burn in Craik Forest, in the hills west of Roberton in the Scottish Borders. A forest walk of around half an hour from the Craik parking area reaches it.
Its flow depends on rain, full after wet weather and modest in dry spells, and the approach path can be rough with fallen trees. The wider forest is known for red squirrels and for the remains of a Roman road.
St Abb's Head
Photo: Graham Robson via Geograph.org.uk
St Abb's Head is a rocky headland and national nature reserve on the Berwickshire coast, near the village of St Abbs and Coldingham, cared for by the National Trust for Scotland. High cliffs of volcanic rock rise from the sea, packed in spring and summer with nesting seabirds, guillemots, kittiwakes and razorbills among them, in one of the great seabird colonies of the east coast.
A white lighthouse of 1862 stands on the head, and a small loch lies behind it. A circular clifftop walk of a few miles from the car park takes it all in, with a tea room and toilets at the start.
Fast Castle
Photo: Lisa Jarvis via Geograph.org.uk
Fast Castle is a scant ruin on a dramatic rocky promontory on the Berwickshire coast, near Coldingham in the Scottish Borders. Only a fragment of wall and scattered remnants survive, on a narrow spit of rock joined to the land by a slender neck, with cliffs falling to the sea on either side.
A concrete footbridge with a chain rail now crosses where a drawbridge once was. A steep path down from Dowlaw farm reaches it, with real care needed near the crossing.
Stichill Linn
Photo: James T M Towill via Geograph.org.uk
Stichill Linn is a waterfall where the Eden Water drops over a rocky lip into a wooded ravine, on the old Newton Don estate near the village of Stichill, a few miles north of Kelso in the Scottish Borders. A riverside path through the woods leads to the falls and the plunge pool below, passing an old estate folly on the way, with the best views from the far bank where stepping stones cross in low water.
It is a quiet, free spot, always open, reached from a country road, with limited parking on the verge.
Greenends Gully
Photo: Anne Burgess via Geograph.org.uk
Greenends Gully is a rocky sea inlet on the coast just south of Eyemouth harbour in the Scottish Borders, reached by a rough track down from the shore. Steep cliffs drop into deep, clear water, which draws divers to the stepped rock and soft corals below the surface, alive with crabs and other sea life.
Strong tides run beyond the shelter of the gully mouth. It is an out-of-the-way spot on a rugged stretch of the Berwickshire coast.
Bilsdean Waterfall
Photo: Mat Fascione via Geograph.org.uk
Bilsdean Waterfall is a small fall on the Bilsdean Burn, close to where the stream reaches the sea on the coast near Cockburnspath, at the northern edge of the Borders. The burn drops through a little wooded cleft down toward a rocky shore, where the sea has cut arches through the rock and boulders lie along the tideline.
It is a modest, out-of-the-way spot, reached by a short but steep and often muddy scramble down from the coast path. The setting is the main thing: a quiet stretch of shore with its natural rock arches, the North Sea breaking on the boulders, and the great bulk of Torness power station further along the coast.
FAQs
What can you see at St Abb's Head?
St Abb's Head, a national nature reserve near Coldingham cared for by the National Trust for Scotland, has high volcanic cliffs packed in spring and summer with nesting guillemots, kittiwakes and razorbills, in one of the great seabird colonies of the east coast. A circular clifftop walk from the car park takes it in, with a tea room at the start.
Which castles are worth visiting in the Scottish Borders?
Hermitage Castle, a grim oblong stronghold alone on the moors of Liddesdale, is the great one, kept by Historic Environment Scotland and open in summer, with a link to Mary, Queen of Scots. Fast Castle, by contrast, is a scant ruin on a dramatic rocky spit near Coldingham, reached on a steep path with care needed at the crossing.
Where can you go for a coastal walk in the Scottish Borders?
The clifftop circuit at St Abb's Head is the finest coastal walk in the Scottish Borders, and the hand-cut tunnel down to the old smuggling harbour at Cove near Cockburnspath is a short, memorable one. Bilsdean, at the northern edge of the Borders, has a quiet shore of natural rock arches reached by a steep scramble from the coast path.
Conclusion
The Scottish Borders run a rugged coast and empty moor down to the English line. On the Berwickshire coast, the seabird cliffs of St Abb's Head crowd with guillemots and kittiwakes, the smuggling harbour at Cove hides through its hand-cut tunnel, and the scant ruin of Fast Castle clings to its rocky spit.
Inland, the grim stronghold of Hermitage stands alone on the moors of Liddesdale. Water drops in wooded ravines at Stichill Linn near Kelso and Wolfcleuch in Craik Forest, while the coast offers the diving inlet of Greenends Gully near Eyemouth and the little Bilsdean fall above its arched shore.
From seabird cliff to gaunt castle, these are the places to seek out across the Scottish Borders.
