Hotels in Kelso, and some history

The Cross Keys Hotel is an excellent place to stay when touring, but the Ednam House Hotel nearby has more atmosphere - they were both built by a Kelso lad who made his 18th-century fortune in America, from tobacco. During the Wars of Independence, he even set up his former black slave as manager of an experimental farm to grow tobacco beside the River Tweed. We still have street-names like Drying House Lane and Havannah Court.

If you want to know more about that, come here and see! The Scottish Borders Tourist Board has yet to be persuaded that it's worth sponsoring any Internet pages or supporting any of the efforts of our system administrator and many others to put the entire Scottish Borders on W3. We want to see every hotel listed, every town described, every walk, every climb, every dive (superb North Sea scuba) - the lot.

Anyway, The Cross Keys might as well have a free plug. You can ring them on (+44) 1573 223303 or fax them on (+44) 1573 225792. The best time to come is probably May to early June, or September to early October, for photogenic conditions. Kelso Civic Week in July is not a bad time, either, as there's a great deal of highly photogenic activity involving horses, fairgrounds, fireworks, pipe bands, torchlit processions, and whisky.