MELROSE

The name is derived from the Gaelic and British 'maol' meaning either 'bare moor' or 'bare promontory'. The Old Melrose which stood up river was once the site of a 7th century monastery founded by St Aidan, but was burnt by Kenneth I in 839 when the name was transferred to the then village of Fordel where David I founded an abbey in 1136. The town which developed witnessed the triumphs and disasters of a border town, with an abbey that overshadowed its affairs up until the Reformation in 1560.

Burnt by Richard II in 1385 after a fruitless Scottish expedition, and during Hertford's invasions in 1544 and 1545. The town was long famous for its Melrose land linen that provided its main source of revenue, with an export market in London and on the Continent until the mid 18th century, when it was supplanted by Galashiels. For John Ramsay, Viscount Haddington, it was created a Burgh of Barony, 1605, a Temporal Lordship with Abbey, 1609, and a Burgh of Regality, 1621, which was later acquired by the Buccleuchs.

After the publication of Walter Scott's 'The Abbey' and "The Monastery' in 1820, which brought the town into prominence, Melrose became popular with tourists who were followed by permanent residents from in and around the prospering southern industrial belt, thus reviving the burgh's flagging fortunes.

A Police Burgh in 1895 with a Town Council in 1901, the latter was abolished in the local government reorganisation in 1975. Apart from its Abbey its other interesting structures include its Mercat Cross of 1642 surmounted by the Unicorn of the Scottish Arms with the mallet and the rose, its railway station, opened in 1849, the Motor Museum and the Melrose Museum.

As a premier borders tourist destination with a rugby club founded in 1877, the town is still assured a season in the public gaze.