Smailholm Tower (HS)

Dramatically sited high on a rocky outcrop, Smailholm was built in the 15th century when this part of the Borders was under constant threat of raids from England. The tower and now demolished hall and other buildings were once protected by a very strong defensive wall, part of which can still be seen. Around about there would have been small thatched tenants’ houses, kail yards and cattle enclosures.The property was acquired in 1645 by the great grandfather of Sir Walter Scott the famous author, poet and lawyer. At about the turn of the century the Scotts abandoned the exposed tower and moved to a new and more comfortable farmhouse at Sandyknowe, just to the north of Smailholm. It was to Sandyknowe, then farmed by his grandparents, that Walter Scott, as a sickly child, was sent to recover. The sight of Smailhom and the surrounding country, were to fire Scott’s imagination and his love for the legend and lore of the Borders.Shop and exhibition of tapestries and costume dolls depicting characters from Scott’s ‘Minstrelsy of the Scottish Borders’.