Abbotsford
Historic SitesArchitectural Buildings
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Monday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Wednesday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
About
Abbotsford is the extraordinary home of the 19th century novelist and ‘Great Scott’ who popularised tartan, saved the Scottish banknote and rediscovered his country’s Crown Jewels. Discover a treasure trove of fascinating objects which inspired his greatest poems and novels. Enjoy Witch Corner, a sculpture trail based on the legends and folklore that inspired Sir Walter Scott with interactive content for all ages. Explore Scott's home and story, browse the gift shop, enjoy seasonal food in our café or simply relax in the beautiful formal gardens and tranquil woodlands.
Suggested duration
2-3 hours
Suggest edits to improve what we show.
Improve this listing
Tours & experiences
Explore different ways to experience this place.
Revenue impacts the experiences featured on this page, learn more.

Top ways to experience Abbotsford and nearby attractions

See what travellers are saying
  • Catriona H
    Jedburgh, United Kingdom19 contributions
    Fantastic place to visit, but now ruined by parking issues
    The house and the tour are fun. We genuinely enjoyed it. The cafe is quite expensive but the staff are lovely and the food is nice. The view of the house and grounds form the cafe is worth the visit. The 2 stars we deducted are about the parking. The management helped us resolve our parking charge, for which we are very grateful. But it is an unpleasant and stressful addition to the visit to receive a £100 parking charge having paid for parking. If they stop doing business with parking eye we would love to return
    Good afternoon, Sorry to hear you received a fine after parking at Abbotsford, we're glad we were able to cancel it for you. We are in the process of changing our parking system and the car park will no longer be managed by the current parking provider from Sunday 26th February 2023. Car parking charges will remain in place after that date but the car park, all charges and fines will be managed by The Abbotsford Trust independently.
    Written 1 February 2023
    This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
    Visited September 2022
    Travelled as a couple
    Written 3 December 2022
  • Josepha M
    148 contributions
    Beautiful setting of house and gardens near river
    We arrived on a sunny day and the house and gardens looked stunning. We especially enjoyed walking in the gardens and by the river. We went around the house which is quirky as full of strange items collected by Sir Walter Scott. We were lent a brief guide by the volunteer in the entrance hall but would have liked more information and would have liked to be able to talk to a volunteer in each room. The house was deserted as we walked around it. We were disappointed by the food in the cafe.
    Visited April 2023
    Travelled with friends
    Written 11 April 2023
  • FoodieOswestry
    532 contributions
    A lot for not a lot.
    This is a highly commercialised place, £2.00 to park and at £14.00 for seven rooms (no concessions for the aged) it’s a tad on the expensive side vis a vis other local places. Perhaps they are still trying to pay off Scott’s £10 million debt! Yes, I know it includes the gardens but, in all honesty, the only thing of interest there are the Roman plaques Scott ‘acquired’ (pinched?) from a Roman fort. I guess it’s a fine place to spend an hour or less when it’s raining or if you are a Scott devotee.
    Good afternoon, thanks for your feedback. We are a small independent charity and believe our ticket price is fair for what we provide, it is also benchmarked against similar attractions. Tickets include free return visits within a year and full access to Abbotsford including the house with 40 minute audio guide, entry to Abbotsford’s chapel with display of St John Henry Newman vestments, entry to the Regency Walled Gardens, visitor centre exhibition and woodland and riverside walks. All money from ticket sales goes back into maintaining, preserving and sharing Abbotsford and Scott's legacy. As a small independent charity, we recently introduced modest parking charges to help us recover financially from the pandemic, allow us to expand our car park in the future and contribute to the costs of maintaining our free paths and facilities. The rooms you can see at Abbotsford are the only rooms that were left as Scott kept them after his death, including one of the best examples in the world of an 18th Century writer’s personal library. The rest of the house was significantly changed or converted by Scott’s descendants who continued to live there which is why they’re not open to the public.
    Written 12 September 2023
    This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
    Visited August 2023
    Travelled as a couple
    Written 30 August 2023
  • RichardOldfield
    Radcliffe on Trent, United Kingdom1,334 contributions
    Enjoyable visit overall
    We enjoyed our visit and the house is very interesting with an audio guide, and all the staff are very friendly and helpful. The house is definitely worth visiting. There is an additional car parking charge of £2 which was disappointing upon arriving. The gardens near the house are nice but not especially extensive (there are further woodland walks). There’s a very expensive gift shop.
    Visited September 2023
    Travelled as a couple
    Written 20 September 2023
  • 2020worldtraveler2020
    Los Angeles, California869 contributions
    Good restaurant, educational audio tour
    One of the better audio tours we took on the Borders Abbey Way hike. We really stopped here for the restaurant; I had super-food salad as well as some fish and chips and both were good. The tour was a little slow but educational. Wish we could have gone upstairs however.
    Visited June 2023
    Travelled with family
    Written 25 November 2023
These reviews are the subjective opinion of Tripadvisor members and not of TripAdvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews order informed by descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as cleanliness, atmosphere, general tips and location information.
Popular mentions

We perform checks on reviews.
Tripadvisor’s approach to reviews
Before posting, each Tripadvisor review goes through an automated tracking system, which collects information, answering the following questions: how, what, where and when. If the system detects something that potentially contradicts our community guidelines, the review is not published.
When the system detects a problem, a review may be automatically rejected, sent to the reviewer for validation, or manually reviewed by our team of content specialists, who work 24/7 to maintain the quality of the reviews on our site.
Our team checks each review posted on the site disputed by our community as not meeting our community guidelines.
Learn more about our review moderation.
4.5
1,201 reviews
Excellent
773
Very good
303
Average
81
Poor
23
Terrible
21

2020worldtraveler2020
Los Angeles, CA869 contributions
Jun 2023 • Family
One of the better audio tours we took on the Borders Abbey Way hike. We really stopped here for the restaurant; I had super-food salad as well as some fish and chips and both were good. The tour was a little slow but educational. Wish we could have gone upstairs however.
Written 26 November 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

AngelaBoniface
Edinburgh, UK75 contributions
Nov 2023 • Couples
Absolutely wonderful visit to Abbotsford. Parking was plentiful with well marked accessible bays. The path from the carpark to the visitor centre was easy to negotiate with my mobility scooter. At the visitor centre the staff were incredibly helpful, offering a free companion ticket for my husband without us having to ask. There is a small lift up to the cafe (large enough for me on my scooter and my husband). Food was very tasty and good value. Again staff were incredibly helpful. The route through the visitor centre was fully accessible and provided a great introduction to the house and Sir Walter Scott. When we arrived at the house, staff welcomed us and sorted us out with headsets for the self directed tour. The commentary from an actor presenting as Walter Scott, was informative and humorous. The entire house was accessible and very beautiful. Cannot recommend Abbotsford highly enough. I’ve been telling all my friends that they MUST visit. Other historic sites could learn from Abbotsford in how to make a venue accessible to all. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Written 8 November 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Katie
16 contributions
Aug 2023 • Solo
A lovely place to visit just outside of Edinburgh. I went on a rainy day but it was nonetheless a lovely visit. The cafe was nice for a cup of tea and a scone and the grounds were very pretty. The audio tour was fun and the staff were really helpful in setting it up and ensuring I understood how it all worked.
Written 31 October 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Bruce R
3 contributions
Oct 2023 • Friends
Our group of 12 stayed for 5 days at the Hope Scott Wing at Abbotsford on a business retreat. We toured the main house at Abbotsford with Nancy as our guide. She was great! It was supposed to be a 45 minute tour - we were going strong at 1 1/2 hours and would have kept going except that we had another commitment. She was funny, engaging and had a wealth of information about Sir Walter Scott and the contents of the Abbotsford house. We were fascinated to learn so much about the life of Sir Walter Scott - which none of us knew much about - and his importance to those times. We also found the items preserved and displayed in the house to be extremely interesting and well presented. And, we extended our tour to walk the formal gardens of Abbotsford, which were lovely. Our Abbotsford tour was a highlight of our trip to Scotland!
Written 17 October 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Denise S
1 contribution
Oct 2023 • Friends
Interestinv venue but we are v disappointed at lack of proper restaurant. Apparently short staffed so hardly any choice and no chips. Luckily staff lovely but long drive and just a sandwich.
Written 12 October 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Janet G
5 contributions
Oct 2023 • Family
The place is fab ....the only negative was its a bit pricey if your a family and quiz was hard for our younger members so when they handed them in for their sticker and a chocolate ok not completed but the Elderly lady serving made hard work out of it and had me the Granny trying to complete them thankfully the younger assistant stepped in gave boys their treats much appreciated we made enough to get in with 3 children and visited cafe so has not spoilt our visit but for a wee sticker and a chocolate making us complete a quiz bit harsh on her part .
Written 11 October 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

GoDaddy99
Cheltenham, UK298 contributions
Oct 2023 • Couples
A very enjoyable visit. The free audio-tour guides, in the character of Sir Walter Scott himself, was very informative and well done. It added to the atmosphere of the visit and explained things well without too much extra, non-relevant detail.

The grounds, garden and house are immaculate and the latter, well stage-dressed. I did struggle however, with 'feeling' that this person had actually lived here. I guess in this sense it was a little 'too' smart and clean.

The volunteer guides were knowledgeable and friendly.

An enjoyable experience overall and I do thoroughly recommend.
Written 10 October 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

bertiebassett2014
Verwood, UK188 contributions
Oct 2023 • Couples
Hidden away outside Melrose in the borders of Scotland. If you like history,old houses and walks this is the place. Cafe,gift shop and toilets all here in one place. The house is full of Sir Walter Scots possessions. Great commentary and not rushed. Very well presented and the welcome guides on the doors are invaluable.
Written 7 October 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Niall C
Harwich, UK15 contributions
Sep 2023 • Couples
Abbotsford was the home of Sir Walter Scott and the property is much as he left it. The Visitor Centre was exceptionally good, benefiting from professional and friendly staff; a great restaurant and the cleanest, poshest toilets I've encountered for years. Everything about the house and gardens is beautiful, inspiring and has so many "wow" factor moments that "Wow" is not a strong enough exclamation. I don't usually take audio guides but the "Sir Walter Scott" guide was incredibly good and I'd highly recommend it.
Written 25 September 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Susan R
Stirlingshire, UK52 contributions
Sep 2023 • Business
We had a lovely lunch in the Abbotsford Cafe. The team were all on the ball and although it was a limited menu on that day, the soup and toasted sandwiches were served efficiently and with a smile. Thank you for getitng us onto the next part of our tour on time!
Written 24 September 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Showing results 1-10 of 1,123
Revenue impacts the experiences featured on this page, learn more.
Is this your Tripadvisor listing?
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.
Claim your listing

ABBOTSFORD: All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos)

Frequently Asked Questions about Abbotsford


Restaurants near Abbotsford: View all restaurants near Abbotsford on Tripadvisor