Stuart Forster heads to Kelso in Roxburghshire, Scotland, to participate in the Scottish Borders Walking Festival and find out what it offers people.
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The Scottish Borders Walking Festival is an annual event that was established in 1994. It attracts walkers to celebrate the landscape and history of the border region. In 2023, it was organised by volunteers based in Kelso. The 2026 Scottish Borders Walking Festival was based in Jedburgh and was held from 4-12 September.
Scottish Borders Walking Festival
The 2023 edition of the week-long walking festival took place from 2-9 September. Featuring 28 walks of varying degrees of difficulty, it was designed to be inclusive and accessible to people with a range of fitness and mobility levels.
The walks included a three-mile (five-kilometre) family and doggy-friendly stroll (Easy Access) coinciding with the Wallaceneuk Parkrun on September 9. More challenging was the nine-mile (14.5-kilometre) walk along the River Tweed from Clintmains to Butchercote Craigs, rated as Steady, on September 8. Also on September 8 was an 11.8-mile (19-kilometre) walk along the Borders Abbey Way from Clintmains to Kelso.
The guided walks presented opportunities to view abbeys and castles. They took place in rolling countryside providing habitat for creatures including otters, ospreys and red deer.
As I discovered at a ceilidh held at Kelso Rugby Club, the Scottish Borders Walking Festival is not purely about walking. It’s also a celebration of the community and the camaraderie fostered while walking. I enjoyed a haggis meal with fellow walkers before an evening of dancing.
The Walking Hub was at Abbey Row Community Centre, which people could drop into to book walks.
The 2023 walking festival
Shirley Redgrave was Chair of the 2023 Scottish Borders Walking Festival, part of a small team which began planning the event in June 2022. She also led five of the festival’s 28 walks, walking approximately 50 miles during the week.
“We had four amazing walks each day and a fabulous social programme,” said Shirley after the walking festival. “Meeting such amazing people and enjoying their company were the highlights for me. It was such a privilege.”
She explained that the challenges to making the walking festival happen included applying for grants and uncertainty relating to the number of participants, as some people were still fearful of taking part in events following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Impact of the Scottish Borders Walking Festival
“Feedback about the 2023 Scottish Borders Walking Festival has been positive, which is absolutely amazing. The traders in Kelso are very happy. The town has been so buzzy. The walkers have been frequenting the cafes, restaurants and shops. When we planned the festival, we wanted to make sure that it was a community event. So all our venues were local facilities like the rugby club, the cricket club and Abbey Row Community Centre. It’s been great,” said Shirley.
“I would just like to thank all of our sponsors and everybody who’s attended, from near and far. We’ve had locals, people from all over the country and even overseas visitors. I think we had 195 individual walkers registered for the walks,” she concluded.
As a first-time visitor to Kelso, I was impressed by the town and the natural beauty of the surrounding landscape.
The Scottish Borders Walking Festival prompted my visit but I anticipate returning.
Travel to Kelso
Kelso is 67 miles north of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is a 90-minute drive, via the A1 and A697.
Map of Kelso
Zoom into the Google Map below to locate places of interest in and around Kelso:
Hotels in Kelso
SCHLOSS Roxburghe is one of the grandest hotels in the Scottish Borders.
Search for accommodation in Kelso and the surrounding area using the map below:
Travel to Jedburgh
Jedburgh is 57 miles north of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is an 80-minute drive, via the A696 and A68.
Map of Jedburgh
Zoom into the Google Map below to locate places of interest in and around Kelso:
Hotels in Jedburgh
Search for accommodation in Jedburgh and the surrounding area using the map below:
Books about Scottish Borders Walks
Keen to identify walks in the Scottish Borders? Find further information in the following books, which you can purchase from Amazon by clicking on the links:
Cicerone Guides’ Walking in the Scottish Borders: Cheviots, Tweed, Ettrick, Moffat and Manor Hills by Ronald Turnbull.
Pathfinder Walking Guide’s Northumberland and Scottish Borders: Outstanding Circular Walks by Dennis and Jan Kelsall.
Walks for all Ages: 20 Circular Walks in the Scottish Borders by Hugh Taylor and Moira McCrossan.
The Scottish Borders:40 Favourite Walks by Robbie Porteous.
Ordnance Survey Landranger map of Kelso and Coldstream (Map 74).
Useful travel information
Find out more about Kelso and the surrounding region on the Visit Kelso website.
Further details
Thank you for visiting Go Eat Do and reading this post about the Scottish Borders Walking Festival. You may enjoy this post about places to visit in Northumberland.
Stuart Forster, the author of this post, is an award-winning travel writer. His work has been published by the likes of National Geographic Traveller, The Mail on Sunday and Love Exploring.
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A version of this post was initially published on Go Eat Do on 10 September 2023.
