On Saturday we took our fuel payload and headed to the Borders district in Southern Scotland where the landscape is gorgeous and populated with castles and abbeys.  All of the abbeys are in a state of ruin due to damage and destruction that occurred during either the multi-century wars with England or from the wrath of Henry VIII in the mid-16th century.

We headed first to Melrose Abbey with the objective of seeing the four Border Abbeys during the day.  Melrose Abbey is located in the lovely village of Melrose which is where Sir Walter Scott made his home for the final twenty years of his life.  The stone used in the construction of the abbey was beautiful and the stonework nothing short of amazing.  And even though the structure is in a ruined state, it is easy to envision what was going on there at that time and how majestic the full structures were, especially with the pinkish stone.  Construction of Melrose began in 1136 for Cistercian monks, was repeatedly ransacked by the English and then met its demise in 1545 when Henry VIII destroyed the abbeys because the Scots failed to ratify a marriage treaty between his son and the infant Mary, Queen of Scots.  Tough politics have been around a long time.

After a lovely lunch at the intimate ten table dining room of the Townhouse Hotel in Melrose, we drove to take a glimpse of Abbotsford, Sir Walter Scott's home which was unfortunately closed, and then on to Dryburgh Abbey.  Dryburgh, though considerably smaller than Melrose, is equally beautiful with its pinkish stone and intricate stonework but much more isolated with no nearby town.

Since it was suddenly after 4 pm, our goal of seeing the four abbeys in this area would obviously not be achieved.  So we headed back towards Edinburgh in hopes of getting a glimpse of Rosslyn Chapel before it closed.  We successfully beat the last admission cutoff by eight minutes and were rewarded for the effort.  This stonework in this 15th century chapel makes the abbey masons look like slackers.  Unfortunately no pictures allowed inside.  Go to www.rosslynchapel.org.uk/.

A planned lazy day in Edinburgh Sunday including dinner with some Maya Research Program colleagues and off to Ireland on Monday.  Oh yes, regarding that tank of fuel that demanded a $310 deposit.  We used a quarter tank which took only $60 worth of fuel to replace what we used.