The Valley Diary: Summer 2026
Six things from the Borders calendar, between now and the end of July
Whole season · Near Innerleithen
Traquair House - Scotland's Oldest Inhabited House
11 – 14 June · Harmony Garden, Melrose
Borders Book Festival
Four days, more than a hundred events, set in the gardens and orchard of the National Trust’s Harmony House with Melrose Abbey and the Eildon Hills behind. Politicians (Gordon Brown and Sir Jeremy Hunt this year), comedians, novelists, historians, sports stars. The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction is awarded live on stage on the Thursday evening. There’s a Food and Drink Village, a Craft Marketplace, a Family Festival running through the weekend, and live music in the evenings. Tickets often sell out weeks in advance for the headline events, so book early.
Friday 12 June · Selkirk
Selkirk Common Riding
Selkirk’s is the most emotionally charged of all the Common Ridings. It commemorates the Battle of Flodden in 1513, when eighty men of Selkirk marched south with King James IV and only one came home. The Casting of the Colours in the Market Square, when the Royal Burgh Standard Bearer dips the burgh flag in silence in the centre of a packed square of townspeople, is one of the most powerful pieces of civic ceremony anywhere in Britain. It is half an hour from Ladhope. If you only see one Common Riding in your life, make it this one.
Whole season · Near Peebles
Kailzie Gardens
Forty-five minutes from Ladhope, Kailzie is one of the loveliest gardens in the south of Scotland — a walled garden enclosed by original early nineteenth-century walls, with herbaceous borders, copper beech hedging, and original Mackenzie and Moncur glasshouses. Open Wednesday to Sunday until June, then daily through July and August. The Laburnum Walk is at its astonishing best in late May, when the arches drop curtains of golden blossom — almost worth a trip on its own. Garden tours by arrangement (minimum four people, £10). Adult admission £8.50. The café here serves a supper club worth keeping an eye on.
24 – 25 July · Borders Events Centre, Kelso
Border Union Show
The most important agricultural event in the Borders calendar. Held on the last Friday and Saturday of July at the Springwood Park showground in Kelso, with over 500 open competitions for horses, livestock and industrial arts, around 200 trade stands, a Food Fair featuring producers from across Scotland, a Craft & Gift Marquee, and the kind of unselfconscious community atmosphere that you simply cannot manufacture. The Food Fair alone is worth the visit. An hour from Ladhope, well signed.
From The Scullery
Letters from the Scullery is a bi-monthly publication from The Scullery at Ladhope Farmhouse, a boutique one-bedroom cottage in the Yarrow Valley, Scottish Borders. Join the Inner Circle at the-scullery.com for early access to dates and Inner Circle rates on midweek stays.